The Last Quarter
by Wolfpire94
Summary: When Renesmee Cullen was just 3 years old, her best friend Jacob Black disappeared. When he returned years later, their friendship changed in  ways she didn't expect. After a year of her life falling apart, she wants to sew it together again. But can she?
1. Preface

**Hi everyone! Okay, so here's my second attempt at a sequel for Full moon. Just so you know, I've made a few minor but major changes to Full moon. Major as in they helped to create this story and Minor as in you probably wouldn't even notice... Unless you really REALLY read it. The changes aren't made until the later chapters in the story.**

**Which brings me onto the next point.**

**MUST READ THIS: If you haven't done so already I STRONGLY suggest you read Full moon before reading this. Other wise, characters and references won't make sense.**

**Anyway, this is short because I wanted the first chapter and the preface to be separate chapters :)**

**But I hope you enjoy! :D**

**Preface**

One of the worst things any person can be is alone.

Human beings were designed to be strong, to be generous, to be kind, to love and to over populate the earth. Yes, they're capable of many things, but they were not designed to be lonely. Regardless of what they are, whether they're dead or alive, loneliness is everyone's biggest weakness.

A person who is alone can wither away in emotions, they can die of loneliness. The idea of being by themselves can turn people to insanity. It can make people lose themselves. Sometimes they go into a deep depression. The worst part is when you're alone after a loss.

When losing the one you love leaves you with nothing - no family, no friends, nothing. _That's_ the worst.

And that's who I am. I am lonely. I am on my own. I am without the one I love. I lost him. I lost him through fire and love, hate and blood. And guilt, pure, black guilt.

The guilty conscious can make a person do crazy things, some things that will only devour them in further guilt. And I hoped she felt it. Every day I craved for her to scream with guilt, to drown in it - but she wouldn't. She would be proud of what she did, I knew it. And when the time comes, I too will feel no guilt, no shame, only pride and sweet, sweet justice.

Yes, she will pay. That sorry, pathetic little brat of a hybrid will pay.

And I will make sure that she pays with her blood... And maybe a few others too.

I know I need to work discreetly. I need to be clever too. Who says that I must rip through her throat first? Who says I can't play games? Who says I can't make her the weakest she's ever been, the most vulnerable? No one.

Yes... I think she owes me a little fun.

**For those of you who have read Full moon, can you guess what big change I made?**

**Anyway, hope you enjoyed this little preface and just so you know this chapter ISN'T in Renesmee's POV, just in case you were thinking she's gone mad :)**

**1st chapter will be up VERY soon :) Review! x**


	2. The Fire and The Water

**Okay, so here's the first chapter! **

**Enjoy!**

**(This IS in Renesmee's POV by the way)**

**The Fire and The Water**

FIRE. ITS SOMETHING I FOUND MYSELF THINKING ABOUT A LOT LATELY, I dream about it too. It's taken me until now to realise how much fire I've witnessed and felt in my life. It's not just a burning mass of something, or a light at the tip of a candle- it's so much more than that.

It's not the fire that burns the flesh that I worry about; it's the fire that burns on the inside that scares me the most. I've felt a lot of fire in my eighteen years - some positive, but mostly negative.

There's the fire in someone's eyes when they're angry.

Revenge.

I've witnessed that a lot and god knows I've felt it too. But I tend to convert that anger to adrenaline so that I can destroy its cause and find peace, tranquillity... _Water_.

I am surrounded by elements; fire, air, earth and water. I am water. I can be hot or cold, still or sparkling - I'm a bit of both.

There's the fire in someone's soul when they're hurting.

Pain.

I've felt that and I know I've caused it a lot too. When I feel that pain, I need to find my water - that generally means running back into the heart of the flame and putting it out.

But there's one fire that water should never touch. The fire that burns in the heart could dry out the water.

Passion.

Love.

Protection.

I've felt that too and it's the fire that has led me to make some of my biggest mistakes. Some of my mistakes have even led to a real fire, a body fizzling, snapping and burning inside a cage made from bright, purple flames.

That could have been me too - but it wasn't. Instead I was blinded by darkness and the fire was put out. But even now, months on, I feel that there is still a fire lurking in the shadows and it's growing. And over time, the fire in my heart grows stronger - waiting for the opposing flame to fire.

The overcast humid weather was odd for La Push beach. Well, I suppose that the overcast wasn't much of a surprise. It was warm for August nonetheless and it helped keep a smile on my face to feel the warmth brush my skin.

I watched the waves crawl up the beach and retreat to the water with my friend Claire.

"Will that mark ever go away?" she asked, staring in disgust at my bare calves. I didn't need to follow her gaze to know what she was referring to. Of course she was referring to the screaming bite mark on the back of my left calve.

"Probably not." I answered, gently placing a hand over it.

"Does it still hurt?"

I titled my head a little either side, "Sometimes, when I'm hunting it starts to hurt - it strains the skin and pulls the scar."

She shuddered. "Yuk. That's gross."

I scoffed, "You're telling me. But I always remember that it can only get better. It hurt more when it happened than it does now."

I lowered my gaze from the waves to look at the tips of my shoes. As I grew silent, Claire put her hand on my shoulder.

"Do you ever think about it?" she asked, "Reoccurring nightmares or something? Y'know, like you did when Jake was away?"

I shook my head. "Not really." I lied. "It's not something I would like to keep revisiting. It makes me feel... _Guilty_."

"Guilty?" she repeated. "Ness, why the hell do you feel guilty? You did the right thing-"

"I did the right thing to get myself out of the wrong thing I did in the first place-"

"Will you ever stop kicking yourself?"

"_You_ asked."

Out the corner of my eye I saw a grin on her face. She dropped her hand and leant back against the rock.

"So," I began eager to change the subject. "How're the wedding plans going?"

She grinned. "Pushing me to the brink of insanity. What about _you_?"

I felt my cheeks flush as a smile broke onto my face. It was always the best thing to think of when I wasn't in the best of moods. I was getting married and I was getting married to the greatest guy possible. Admittedly, he'd been coming and going pretty fast in the last few months - but that didn't matter to me. He was there when I needed him and I loved him.

"Five years, Claire." I reminded her. "We're getting married in five years."

"But why?" she whined. "I'll probably be old and fat and have kids and I'll be going grey and god knows what else."

I chuckled. "You're such a drama queen, Claire. You'll be twenty five - I think that's hardly ancient. If it makes you feel any better my dad's a hundred and twenty eight, he'll be in his thirties by then."

She laughed. "You do realise you'll be marrying a forty-year-old, technically."

"So will you."

"Quil isn't forty-"

"He's near enough. Besides, it's still not as bad as my mom, right?"

"Touché." she grinned. "But I think your mom wins by a long shot."

We walked slowly up the beach arm in arm. The wind was strong and sent our hair flying back off our faces. It was nice to spend the day with Claire, it was rare nowadays seeing as her wedding day was drawing near and she needed to tie all the loose ends before then. Her mother didn't want me interfering; although Claire had told her countless times that she wanted me to be involved. It reassured her to know that it wasn't just her and her mom organising the wedding. Of course, all I was doing was supporting her until the day, I wasn't helping at her numerous fittings, picking out food and the cake or anything. So it made time drag.

I had graduated now, so there was no school work to be done. I wasn't allowed to go to college anymore so college preparation was out of the question. Like I said, Jacob was being...weird. His absences were much longer than his visits, and even when he was with me he didn't seem all there. He'd already asked me to marry him, so that couldn't be what was distracting him and he'd pretty much sworn an oath to me some months ago that he would never leave me again. I tried not to let it bother me, because I knew that as soon as I did it would occupy my mind twenty-four, seven. Eventually I'd end up doing something I'd regret. It was time for me to turn a new leaf and to trust that whatever Jacob was doing it was for the greater good and wasn't putting him in danger.

Claire and I walked through acres of forest, lost in conversation. It was strange how much it made me feel like a kid again.

"How much longer do you reckon we'll be able to do this?" she asked, kicking a twig.

"Do what?"

"Y'know, just walk and talk."

"Probably until you start squeezing out babies." I grinned.

"What makes you think I'll be first?"

"Because _you're_ the one who's getting married in a week. And after a wedding follows the _honeymoon_." I twinkled my fingers in her face and laughed as I skipped ahead a little.

She grinned, "Of course, you would know all about that wouldn't you, Renesmee?"

I scoffed, "I believe that once upon a time I may have played a reasonably significant role in a honeymoon that went from paradise to hell."

"You're a curse. I'm thankful you're not coming on my honeymoon too."

"You and me both."

After that we walked in a blissful silence. As we stepped through a mass of shrubs, I heard a low thudding in the distance. For a moment I slowed my pace to try and hear better. The thudding grew louder and I could feel it coming closer.

As she continued forward, I grabbed Claire's arm. Slowly, I looked over my shoulder to find a group of deer bounding towards us.

I grabbed Claire and threw us aside as the deer ran over our tracks. They'd barely passed us when four of them disappeared almost spontaneously from the group.

I should have guessed. My family were due to hunt today, but it was one of those hunting trips that had become a frequent kind – the ones where I literally wasn't allowed to go with them. And I couldn't understand why.

I had always been welcome on hunting trips and I would generally go, but since I started dating Jacob I might hold back on some of the overnight hunts. But considering these were during the daytime and that nowadays Jacob was gone more than here, I didn't have much else to do besides stuff my face with deer blood.

Another thing that made their hunting trips so peculiar was how frequent they were. My family were out nearly two or even three times every week. I told my parents repeatedly that if they kept this up they would get fat.

As the deer scattered and the coast was clear I turned on my side to Claire.

"Are you okay?" I asked, hooking my arm under hers.

"What was _that_?" she breathed, trying to catch her breath.

"That was vampires hunting. Sorry you were in the middle of it-"

"Renesmee?" I heard my mother's voice and I got Claire to her feet. The second I stood I could see Bella on the other side of the tracks. Blood was smeared around her mouth and at first glance the blood made her look almost ugly. Almost. Seconds after Edward joined her. He too was in a similar state.

"Hi." I said innocently, letting go of Claire.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, offended. "I told you that you couldn't come with us today."

"Well, I didn't really have much else to do-"

"You were meant to stay in La Push, with Claire." Edward interrupted.

"You didn't tell me that." I said quietly. I was biting my tongue. Holding back with all my strength not to ask why I couldn't hunt with them – it wasn't as if they were hunting to the extreme or anything.

"We're telling you now-"

"Edward, Bella!" I heard Emmett call from far away. "Hurry up! We gotta go!"

"Gotta go where?" I immediately asked.

Bella looked at me in a way that practically yelled that she'd rather be anywhere else but here right now.

"We just have to go." Said Edward. "Claire, can you make sure that Renesmee goes home now. Please?"

After a few hesitant moments, she nodded and linked her arm around mine. Then, without another word, my parents disappeared spontaneously.

Claire shivered.

"I hate it when they do that." She said and we turned and walk back the way we came.

The journey back to Claire's house had been silent. Claire knew that I was irritated by my parents' odd behaviour and figured it would be wise to not interrupt my thoughts. But there wasn't much for me to think about. I knew no more now than what I did when I woke up this morning and I wasn't expecting to know more anytime soon.

"Whatever you're parents were talking about – its bugging you isn't it?" she asked as we arrived at her house. I ran my fingers along the side of my Mustang until I reached the driver's door.

I shrugged, but I couldn't find the words to reply.

"Ness?" she walked round to my front and tried to get me to look at her.

I sighed. "Claire, every time I'm kept in the dark it means that something bad is either happening or is going to happen." I looked at her then. "And it has something to do with me-"

"Hey!" I jumped at the closeness of Quil's voice and almost cracked the window with my nails.

Claire wanted to give her fiancé a stern glare for interrupting me when I was trying to verbally express my thoughts, but she didn't. He came over to us and put an arm around Claire and kissed her. There was a sudden awkward tension that rose between the three of us.

"Sorry," said Quil. "Did I interrupt something?"

"Well-" Claire started but I interrupted her.

"No, no." I insisted. "It's fine. Listen, have you seen Jake recently?"

When Quil hesitated I felt something in me drop.

"Er, yeah. I just saw him – he's heading over to your house, actually."

I nodded and opened the car door.

"Wait!-"Claire grabbed the door as I stepped in. "Renesmee, are you alright?"

I quickly nodded again and started the engine. "I'm fine, Claire. Seriously. I'll call you later or… something. My parents might want you to babysit me."

I gave her a small reassuring smile and she returned it. I left Quil and Claire on the driveway and pulled out.

My speed changed throughout the drive. When I was thinking it slowed and when I was reminded that Jacob was waiting for me I sped up.

I started to think about my parents in the forest again. Sometimes it bugged me more than Jacob's absence, but I never said anything. Like I said, new leaf, I knew that I probably didn't want to know what was going on. But it would only be a matter of time until I couldn't help myself anymore.

**Hope you enjoyed it!**

**Let me know what you think! :) Review! **

**and I'll update soon :D x**


	3. Yin and Yang

**Okay, here's the next chapter! **

**Enjoy! :)**

**Yin and Yang**

MY HOUSE WAS EMPTY WHEN I ARRIVED AND THERE WAS NO JACOB WAITING for me. Had I been too long to get here? It wouldn't surprise me.

I let out an exasperated sigh and threw myself onto the closest couch. The past year for me definitely hadn't been one to boast about. Although it had been one of the greatest years of my life, I had never come so close to death before on so many occasions. I was hoping that things would start to calm and everything would return to normal - well, as normal as it could get for us. But it only lasted for a short while. By mid July, things had started to become weird again. I was becoming suspicious. First, it was Jacob and what worries me more is that he doesn't seem to involve his pack anymore.

Seth tells me how recently Jacob's been a lone wolf and doesn't seem to want help with whatever he's doing. Seth attempted to follow him once, spy on him, just to see what he was up to. But Jake spotted him and took him straight home. Apparently, he didn't seem to be doing anything out of the ordinary from what he would be if he were patrolling.

It was the fact he was 'patrolling' on his own that bugged us.

I tried not to seem clingy or over protective and that's why I never told Jacob that his behaviour was worrying me or that _I_ was the one who asked Seth to follow him in the first place.

For the first time in my life, I found my house boring. I know I shouldn't have considering there were tonnes of things I could do, but with no one here and no one expected, I couldn't help but feel bored.

Honestly, I think Quil lied to me about Jake. He was a little hesitant after all - and why shouldn't he lie? He wanted alone time with his fiancé. I should understand that. _I_ wanted alone time with _my_ fiancé - if he were ever here.

About an hour passed and I was still lying on the couch wondering what to do to make today over quickly. Maybe today just wasn't a 'seeing Jacob' day - maybe tomorrow would be the day.

I always woke with the same hope and generally went to bed with the same hopes shattered.

For some reason, through the boredom, I found myself sitting at my father's piano and pressing random keys with roughly a few seconds between each press. I wanted to play something - anything. But there was no buzz in me.

Then something weird happened.

As I pressed the middle C, a chill ran over me. It almost felt like a small, cold breeze running over my shoulders and brushing my hair. I froze for a moment.

Then I sensed another presence in that room.

The room turned cold, but the breeze didn't come back. Darkness filled within me and my fingers went numb.

I was afraid to turn. Afraid to look. Afraid to move.

But as the feeling only grew worse, I turned on the seat.

There was nothing.

Of _course_ there was nothing - it was just paranoia. I didn't usually mind being alone in this house, but there was something different about today. Usually, I felt safe. I knew that either my family or Jacob or the wolves were close and that back up always reassured me. But I didn't feel like I had it anymore. They felt far away.

I felt like I was on an island in the middle of a huge ocean and nobody knew that my island even existed.

I stood from the piano and continued to look around. My heart racing. My palms sweating.

_No_, I thought. _Stop it, Renesmee. You're just being paranoid. There is no one here. There's never anyone here_.

Besides - who would want anything to do with me? The Volturi had said that I was forgiven and that there was no resentment. We were even. And anyone else had been eliminated.

Yes, I was just being paranoid.

But that ceased to help me. As I returned to the living room, each step I took was careful. Each corner I turned was checked and my back was always watched.

I really wasn't doing my sanity any favors.

The living room was the exact same as when I left it - then why did I just want to leave and drive away?

I didn't like it. I didn't like being alone, I just wasn't used to it. Maybe I could go see Abi? Or Eli? Or Seth?

There was no doubt that my parents would be furious that I wasn't at home. But to be honest, lying in the middle of a busy road seemed safer than here right now. If I left a note telling them the truth about why I'd left - they'd think I was crazy.

At the bottom of the stairs I walked swiftly past the couches, pulled my car keys out my pocket and-

The breeze came back again. I froze.

This time I turned straight away. The living room behind me was empty, there was no movement. No windows were open, no doors. Every room I could see in was empty. I stepped backwards towards the door and when I felt it brushed me as it opened I nearly flew through the roof.

I shrieked as I flinched away and my head snapped to the door.

"Hey." said Jacob, shutting the door behind him.

Jacob.

Jacob! He was here!

I felt something give way in me then and collapsed into him.

The coldness vanished from the room, the numbness fled and my heart went from racing to slow, strong, steady thuds. I held onto him tightly, trying to not only calm myself but to cherish his presence. I had thrown myself into him so quickly that it took him a moment or two to realise what I was doing. Slowly, he wrapped his arms around me.

"Is everything okay?" he asked.

I nodded. "It is now."

Finally, I peeled myself off him and looked at him.

"Are you sure?" he asked. "You seemed pretty eager when I walked in."

I brushed his comment away with my hand. "I'm fine. I'm just paranoid. You know how I can be."

He nodded. I could already tell there was a part of him that wasn't completely here with me.

"So, what're you doing here?" I asked, heading back to a couch.

"I came to see you - do I need a reason to see you?"

"Well, recently there's seemed to be a reason why you can't see me. So I guess it shouldn't surprise me that being here contributes to your _mission_."

"My _mission_?" he grinned. "You think I'm a spy now or something?"

I scoffed. "Jake, considering I see you so little, it wouldn't surprise me if you're a 'most wanted' in several countries and being hunted by CIA." them I smiled. "How do I know you're not going to use me as a hostage for a million dollar robbery?"

He slowly walked closer to me. "Well, I'll admit you'd be a very good hostage."

"Really? How come?"

"Because anyone would rush to save you - no matter what the cost."

I smiled and then he pulled me in for a kiss. At first the kiss seemed perfect and that no war or catastrophe could break it, but as we kissed, I felt him resist and eventually pull away.

"What's wrong?" I asked him and he looked away, his eyes deep in concentration. He tried to keep it discreet but I could see him inhaling. He was trying to catch the scent of something.

"Jake-" I asked again. "What is it?"

He clenched his jaw and moved his hands from my waist. Before I could ask again he left me and headed for the stairs.

"Jake, where are you-?"

"Stay here. I mean it, Ness. Don't move." he ordered as he ran up the stairs four steps at a time. As he disappeared at the top of the stairs, I eventually dropped onto the bottom step and sat with my chin in my hand.

For ages I could hear him rushing around upstairs, going from room to room at least six times. When he came back down the stairs at a casual pace I stood.

"Do you mind telling me what the hell that was about-?"

"Do you wanna go out?" he asked, spontaneously. I frowned at him.

"What?"

"Go out. The two of us, somewhere, _anywhere_."

"Why?"

He shrugged. "Just to get you out of the house? Does there need to be a reason?"

I studied him closely for a moment. He had been weird before but his mood swings had never been this bad. There was something going on and now I was starting to get the idea that maybe, just maybe, Jacob and my family might be in on the same thing.

"Well, yeah, there should be a reason. You're usually gone by now, but it seems you're staying over time."

"I know. I'm sorry, things have been kinda busy lately." then he looked behind him out the window. "But, it's starting to get dark. How d'you feel about a swim?" my favorite grin returned to his face and I relaxed a little.

I smiled lightly, "Okay. Let me just go and get some towels and a bikini and I'll be right back." I headed for the stairs but stopped at the foot and looked over my shoulder. "Don't go anywhere - okay?"

"Sure, sure." he smiled. "I'll be right here when you get back."

And he was. I rushed around my room and bathroom to get things together as well as slipping a bikini on underneath my clothes, I pretty much threw everything that my hands touched into the bag. The forest was always pretty at night, especially when the moon is out. But Jacob insisted that we drove to La Push, which irritated me, but I went along with it.

When I had been here earlier with Claire the beach was pretty quiet. Now it was deserted - perfect. The sky was a blood red on the horizon where the clouds separated to let the last glow of the sun through. The water was a mixed red with dark blue and almost black in some parts. If I didn't know that the water was reflecting the sky I would have said there were some serious chemical reactions happening in that water.

After I dropped the bag near a large boulder, I slowly walked towards the water, taking my clothes off bit by bit - my eyes never leaving the blood red sky.

Jacob held back a little, when I noticed I turned to look at him.

"C'mon - this was your idea." I called to him. "You're not going to have me swimming on my own, are you?"

He smiled at me but that was all. With that, I turned and carried on into the sea, my head high and my hips over swaying with my steps.

By the time the water was at my waist it was impossible to be sexy anymore. I kept walking and knew that eventually I would have to swim. When the water hit my stomach I stopped. I was taking in sharp breaths to help ease the pain of the icy water. In fact, I knew now that I just couldn't move anymore. I tried to pretend that I was still admiring the view, when the truth was that these pacific waters had me frozen from the waist down.

A small wave of water slashed up my back and I yelped, but when I felt Jacob's warm chest pressed against my back, I melted.

"How you feeling?" he asked as he wrapped his arms around me.

"I don't know." I sighed, resting my head on his shoulder.

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"I don't know, as in I don't know what I'm feeling because I can't actually remember having any feeling, especially below my waist."

He chuckled and rested his cheek against my head. "Well, I'm sure I can change that." just then he swivelled me round so we were chest to chest. My cold finger gently traced down the muscles of his arms and I started to regain warmth in my legs.

Then he kissed me. His hand slid up my back to hold my neck.

Finally, we broke apart and I rested my forehead on his nose for a moment before looking back into his eyes.

"What are you hiding from me, Jacob Black?" I asked quietly.

He smiled. "It's for me to know and for you to not find out."

I narrowed my eyes lazily at him. "And why don't I have the motivation to argue with you about it?"

"Maybe the water is so cold that you don't _feel_ that you need to?" he smiled and returned his lips to mine.

The longer we stayed like that, the more of my bikini came loose and eventually disappeared. I wrapped my legs around his waist and kept him close whilst his hands caressed my back and slid under my thighs.

I could remember being here nearly a year ago with Jacob and how different things were then. I remembered feeling that I was going insane after the things that I was feeling for him and how uncalled for they were. Back then I could never have imagined me doing something like this with Jacob _at all_, let alone in the sea. Admittedly, the kissing and touching and pure heaven was making me see what a big deal I was making over what was probably nothing. I didn't need to worry about Jacob or my family - they knew what they were doing.

"I'm pretty sure that was illegal." I said as we staggered out the water and collected our clothes that had washed up on the sand. We lucky they did, I was expecting them to wash up somewhere either on the other side of the pacific or at least somewhere else along the west coast.

"Na," he grinned, sliding his fingers through mine. "Nobody saw us. As long as nobly knows, we're clear."

When we reached the boulder with my bag, I pulled out a large towel and wrapped it around us both. Gently, we sat down against the boulder and I lay in his arms with the towel wrapped tightly round me. I had been cold before, but then Jacob came and I'd forgotten ever being frozen.

He tended to do that - whether it was the imprint or just him, I didn't know. But whenever I was cold, he'd always bring me back into the warmth again. Whenever I was angry with him, he could calm me down again. He was like my peace of mind, my neutral zone, my yin and yang.

But I didn't know how he did it, he just... _Did_.

**Hope you enjoyed it!**

**Let me know what you think! Please review!**

**and I'll update soon :) x**


	4. Ghosts

**Okay, here's the next chapter! :)**

**Enjoy!**

**Ghosts**

I WOKE THE NEXT MORNING WITH THE TOWEL AROUND ME, IN JACOB'S ARMS, still on La Push beach. It was extremely windy, it was surprising the towel hadn't blown off me.

At first, I didn't do much except from sit there, watching the waves. Considering it was making me more tired by doing absolutely nothing, I probably should have done something, but I couldn't. It was then I realised how long I'd been with Jacob and although he had been weird from now and again, it wasn't too bad. He hadn't needed to leave. This had to have been the longest I'd been with him in ages.

His usual visits lasted an hour, tops. But it was the next morning and I was still in his arms and he was fast asleep.

I rolled my head to the side so that my cheek was resting against his warm chest.

There were two parents and some kids in the distance chasing then running away from the water. The girls let out a few shrieks from now and again, but they were too far away to disturb us. I smiled at them.

In a way, I envied them. I wished that I could do that, play with my little friends, pretend that the water is lava, without a care in the world. But things were complicated for someone my age. Eighteen, whereas they were only eight.

But I never had that, I never had a proper childhood. I never had friends who were the same age as me and looked it. Claire was older than me, yet I always looked at least seven years older than her. Abi didn't come around until last year and that was it.

Just look at them over there, so young, naive and innocent. But I too still seemed naive, but they were young, what was my excuse?

"What're you looking at?" I heard Jacob mumbled as he turned his head in the same way as me.

"Oh." he said, blankly.

"I envy them." I told him.

"Why?"

"Because they look like they're having so much fun, not a single worry in the world."

"Nah," he sighed, "I reckon it's just a mask. They're dying inside."

"Jake - don't say that. They're not. Look at them, they're happy."

"And you're not happy?"

"That's not what I mean. I just... I wish I was like that. I wish _we_ were like that. Wouldn't it be fun?"

"I think you and I have completely different ideas of 'fun'." he retorted.

"Oh c'mon, Jacob." I whined. "You're telling me that you wouldn't want to be a child again? - have no worries?"

"_Be _a child?" he scoffed. "I thought you were talking about the parents, Ness. I thought you were saying that you wanted to be a _parent- _that's why I couldn't understand you_."_

I laughed. "No. I'd want to be a child. I mean, let's face it, I never had a real childhood. My childhood was over before you could blink."

"Most kids would love that. They're always trying to be older than they are. You _we're_ older than you seemed."

"Point taken." then I sighed and looked back at the water. Jacob kissed my head and mumbled something into my hair that I couldn't understand.

"What?" I asked, laughing a little.

"Your parents are going to slaughter me." he muttered.

"Why? What's wrong with me being out here with you? - I'm safe." I assured him.

"I wasn't meant to take you out in the first place, let alone keep you out all night."

"_Meant_?" I repeated. "You mean that you weren't staying this long with me because you wanted to, you were doing because you were told to? My parents told you babysit me."

"Of course I _wanted_ to stay with you, I always want to be with you." he said. "It's just that things have been... _Complicated_."

_Don't harass him, Ness. Don't ask... Don't ask... Don't ask.._

"Yes, I've noticed." I said, bleakly.

He laughed behind me. "I'm actually kinda surprised you haven't interrogated me about it."

I felt a smile stretch on my face. "Are you impressed?"

"Very." he said as he kissed my head.

"Good. Well, make the most of it - I don't know how much longer I'll be able to hold back for."

"Great." he sighed. "I'd better get you home."

Admittedly, I felt that staying out all night might have been pushing it with my parents a little. Considering that as soon as they saw me in the forest yesterday they ordered me to go home, I doubted they would be okay with my absence. But then again, there was always the slight chance that they were still hunting - that small, highly unlikely, hopeful chance.

Unfortunately, luck just wasn't on my side today. They were about to leave again when Jacob and I pulled up outside the house. As we pulled onto the drive, I could have sworn I saw Bella's eyes go black with rage. It was then when I decided that I wanted to stay in the car and never move to anywhere else.

I lingered in the car when the engine died.

"On a scale of one to ten," I began, "how much trouble are we going to be in?"

"Honestly, I don't think it's you who they're pissed at. Goody." then Jacob got out the car and shut the door. I still didn't want to get out, but when I looked I saw their attention fall entirely on Jake.

I got out the car then.

"Bella, you don't need to keep worrying. She was with _me_-"

"And what if something had happened to you?" she snapped. "Then what could she do, Jake?"

"Bella just-"

"_No_. You were put in charge of her and despite everything you take her out, overnight-"

"Bella-" Edward reached for her arm and tried to pull her back but she refused. Then she turned to him.

"Are you not worried about what could have happened?"

"I'm more concerned about a better time and place for this." I saw him indicate to me and I felt my heart sink. My mother looked back at me and the anger flooded from her eyes. I looked at her with resentment but sheer fear too. Deep down I knew that I should look at all of them like that, but I didn't - my gaze fell entirely on Bella and we locked eyes for a long while. Nether of us needed to be mind readers to know what the other was thinking. She knew that I knew something was up and I knew that she wasn't going to give any information. But the way I saw it, until she told me what was wrong, I wouldn't change my daily ways, I would go out when and with who I wanted and for however long I wanted too.

"Renesmee," she began. "We'll talk about this some other time-"

"No we won't." I snapped. "We'll never talk about it, we never do. We'll just wait until something slips and I find out - that's how it usually goes."

Before she could respond, I stormed away. I needed to be away from this right now, I needed to be with someone who wasn't involved in this, someone who couldn't try to get involved and someone who didn't want to. Abi.

Claire would bug me about it or Quil would be there.

As I slid into the driver's seat, Bella poked her head through the open passenger window.

"Renesmee Cullen, get out of this car and get inside, right now."

"No." I told her, starting the engine. "You guys go and do whatever you have to do that you so desperately don't want me to know about. I'll be fine. I'll just go and see my friends. I won't be in your way and you can go out on your "secret" hunting trips." I could see my hands shaking slightly on the steering wheel and Bella noticed it too. Her rage was completely gone and she showed me a look of sympathy.

"Renesmee, what's wrong?"

I leant my head against the head rest and took a deep breath.

"Mom, I don't want to be in that house alone. Not anymore. End of story." before she could question, I reversed out the driveway.

"Renesmee, wait!" she called before I drove away. "What happened?"

What could I say to her? I didn't even know what happened, it was just... Weird. I knew I'd regret ignoring my mother later but I refused to stay alone in that house, and so I drove away.

Once the house was out of view, I slowed down. I didn't want to risk one of my parents running out in front of the car from nowhere just to stop me.

I slowed down even more as I reached into my pocket to find my phone.

"Hello?" Abi picked up after only two rings.

"Hey, it's me."

"Oh, Renesmee! I'm glad you called, are you busy?"

"I was just gonna ask you the same thing, is it okay if I come over?"

"Well, I'm not actually at home. I'm in Port Angeles. My mom was working and we were gonna have lunch, but her boss threw her in this meeting so now I'm here with nothing to do."

I grinned. "I'm on my way."

"Great! Meet me outside the theatre, I'll see you soon." and she hung up.

It took nearly an hour to reach Port Angeles, which I guess wasn't too bad. As I searched for a place to park, I passed Abi who quickly waved.

"Hey!" she smiled as I came over to her after parking.

"Hey, how long have you been waiting?" I asked giving her a small hug.

"Well, I thought I might have wrinkles by the time you got here." she teased.

"_Hey_!" I whined. "It's a long way from Forks."

She held her hands up. "I know, I know. I'm just kidding. So, watcha wanna do?"

I shrugged, "You said that you were meant to have lunch right?"

"But you don't eat."

"Who has to know the foods for me?" I smiled. "If we get something small each, then you can have mine too."

"Genius."

The two of us went to a small Italian style cafe just a few minutes down the street. Because it was still pretty humid, we managed to get the last table available outside near probably the strongest smelling flower patch in the world.

"So," said Abi once the waiter had taken our (her) orders and left. "What's going on?"

I was slightly taken aback by her words. "What do you mean?"

"Renesmee, I've known you long enough now to know when there's something wrong. You didn't just come here because you wanted to see me. If you wanted to see someone you would have tried Claire first. Or Jacob... What's going on?"

"I came here because I need to be with someone... Normal."

"Claire's normal."

"No. I didn't mean that. I mean that... Just...it's complicated."

"Well, it's pretty busy here, I'm sure we'll be waiting a while - I've got plenty of time." she smiled crossing her arms on the table.

I sunk back in my chair and studied her for a moment. I wanted to see Abi because I was hoping to get _away_ from my troubles at home, but all it was doing was bringing me back.

"Well," I sighed. "Y'know how I told you once that Jacob was being weird?"

"Yeah, it's bugging Embry too. He's still being odd I'm guessing?"

"Completely, but so are my family."

"How so?"

"Well-" I leant across the table and she leant forward too so that our conversation was more private. "They've been going on hunting trips without me-"

"Is that so strange?" she asked. "Renesmee, let's face it. Half the time you go on your own hunting trips anyway. Whenever your family go, you generally take advantage of that time to be with Jacob."

"I don't mean that, Abi. I mean that when I ask to go with them, sometimes they say "no". And they've been saying no a lot more recently."

"So you think you're family are up to something?"

I nodded. "And I think it could be the same reason why Jake's being weird too."

She rested back in her chair and crossed her fingers over her stomach. "Well, who knows. It is your birthday next month - maybe they're planning a surprise for you?" she suggested. "Like a party?"

"If it was a party, Alice would have complete control of it and besides, I know it has nothing to do with my birthday."

"How do you know?"

"Because it's too serious, Abi." I told her. "Do you remember earlier this year when the pack were constantly out patrolling?"

She sighed and nodded. "How could I not remember."

"Well, before that Jacob was being weird too. He wouldn't tell me-"

"Have you asked him?"

"Well, I-" but I stopped. The truth was I hadn't asked him, but he knew that I wanted to. I had asked him on different occasions what the problem was but I never directly asked him "Why do I barely ever see you?" or "What are you doing during the time you're not with me?"

"Well, no. I haven't asked him."

"He's not a mind reader, Renesmee. How do you expect him to answer if your don't ask?"

"Abi, he knows that I want to know. I'm just trying to not make a fuss."

She grinned. "Trying and failing."

I sighed and pushed myself back in my seat. "But that's not just it." I said, quietly. I was considering telling Abi about yesterday, when I was alone. I hadn't told anybody - not even Jacob. But I didn't know how to explain it.

Abi had noticed my long, deep silence and grew concerned.

"You're not pregnant, are you?"

"No!" I snapped. "No, no, no. I'm not pregnant. It's hard to explain - I don't even understand it myself."

"What is it?"

I took a deep breath and leant across the table again. "Yesterday, my parents ordered me to go home when they saw I was out and about with Claire. So, I went home of course, to an empty house. It was really boring - there was nothing to do and-"

"Well, you should have called me. I was free yesterday afternoon, we could've hung out."

"I know, I'm sorry but that's not what I'm talking about. The thing is... I don't think I was actually alone in the house."

Abi frowned. "What?"

"I know, it sounds crazy but it's true. The house was _supposed_ to be empty with the exception of me. My family were miles away and Jacob was god knows where at that point."

"So, what happened?"

"I always felt like there was someone there with me. It was like there was always someone standing behind me, but when I looked there was nothing. The house went cold and there was a small breeze like... Like... _Breathing_, against my hair."

"I think you might have a ghost. Maybe it's Jacey's ghost coming to haunt you." she shook her fingers creepily and laughed.

"Abi, that isn't funny-"

"Hey, maybe she was trying to redeem her sins. She might have been trying to give you that grand that she owed you for your car?"

"Abi, _seriously_. I haven't told anyone about this, okay? I can't explain it right but that _is_ what what happened." I shuddered at the memory and looked away from her.

Finally Abi sighed and leant forward.

"Look, Renesmee I'm sure you're just being paranoid. I mean, it makes sense, you're parents have been weird as well as Jacob - I'm sure it's just getting too much for you." I nodded slowly, but didn't feel like that was it. I wanted it to be paranoia - I wanted it to be that so badly, but the truth is it wasn't. I knew that there was someone there yesterday, I just couldn't figure out who.

"Listen, to take your mind off things - I'm having a birthday party in a couple of weeks."

"But your birthday was last month." I stated.

"I know but my cousin couldn't make it for then."

"Your _cousin_?" I retorted."You stopped the party for your cousin?"

"Look, she lives in India - its not easy for her to just drive here and back. Plus it's expensive around this time of year. But she's booked flights now and everything, so she's ready to come over. My parents said its fine - do you wanna come? I'd love you to."

I smiled. "Wow, India. Big trip."

"You're tellin' me. So, you coming? Don't worry, Jacob's invited too." she grinned.

"I wouldn't miss it for the world." I smiled.

Soon, our food was brought to the table and I sat with a full plate in front of me, waiting for Abi to finish her first helping. As I sat and watched her eat a shiver ran down my spine that shook my entire body.

"You okay?" asked Abi with a mouth like a hamster.

Hesitantly, I nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine." I lied.

Then, I felt it again. That breeze, that breathing breeze. I whipped round to look behind me and jogged the table so much that the plates clattered and some people turned and stared.

"Renesmee!" she snapped quietly. "What is it? What's wrong now?"

"I-I don't... Nothing." I turned around to face the table and my body tensed up. Abi continued to talk. "I think you should talk to your parents about that - if it's really concerning you that much. I really think you should tell them."

"Are you kidding?" I scoffed. "Like they need anymore on their plates. No. I'm not telling them - this will be our little secret, right?"

"But what if the reason why you're parents are being weird and what you're feeling _links_?" she asked. "What if, whilst they're looking _for_ _it..._ _it's_ looking _at_ _you_?"

The worst part was - I think she was right.

**Thanks for reading! I hope you liked it - let me know :)**

**Please review! :) and I'll try to update soon x**


	5. Fear and Bells, Love and Hell

**Okay, here's the next chapter!**

**Enjoy! :)**

**Fear and Bells, Love and Hell**

WATCHING CLAIRE BEING MADE UP TO PERFECTION MADE ME SUDDENLY FEEL that everything is suddenly real. She wasn't the little Claire who always looked seven years younger than her best friend anymore, or the same girl who used to be able to take my mind off absolutely anything, or the one who I played with for hours, used to have sleepovers with - all those things that were typical of little girls. Although Claire was a lot weaker than me, she was the _only_ person on this planet who could make me feel pure human when I wanted to be. She didn't even need to try. Although I barely had a childhood, physically, she would teach me to grow up with her. We would go through the same phases together. I would teach her about growing up and she would teach me about being a kid - that way, we stayed on a similar level.

It was strange to think that we had that kind of relationship, that much of bond and not have gone to school together.

But now, here we were. Nineteen years on from when I first met her, and she was dressed in white with the face if an angel. I suppose wedding days were something that girls dreamed of since they knew it existed - but that side of being typical girls had never really shown in me and Claire. We'd talk about it once or twice prior to being engaged, but other than that we focused on the now and generally the important.

When I looked at her now, I couldn't help but feel like nothing would be the same after this. She would be married; she would have bigger things to depend on and to care about other than her childhood friend. Plus, although the same principles apply, both our marriages will be so different and that brings me into a subject that I try not to think about. Claire is human, so is Abi, so is Eli, I'm only part human; the rest of me keeps me alive for a very, very long time. In a hundred years, I will only half the people I love now - it's cruel and it makes me sad so I try not to think about it, even if it's enviable.

Claire made her mother and her sister leave, even though her sister was maid of honour, but she made me stay. As she stood I went over to her and held her hand.

"Cold feet?" I asked, giving her a small nudge. She smiled back.

"No, just nervous." she sighed.

"Why are you nervous? You don't need to be nervous."

"What if I'm a bad wife? Or a bad mother? Or-"

"Claire, you'll be fine." I insisted. "What makes you think you'll be a bad wife?"

"Because I don't know how to be a good one."

I smiled, "Those vowels, the ones you're going to say in about twenty minutes, "Through sickness and in health, through good and bad, come hell or high waters-" she started to laugh. "You know what I mean." I said. "All you need to do is stick to your vowels and you'll be fine. When you agree to marry someone, you're not signing yourself up for an impossible task where you _have_ to swim the seven seas and back. You're saying that you _would_ swim the seven seas and back. You're agreeing to be with someone, to love and to cherish, to look after them, through sickness and in healthy and to be faithful and true to them - til' death do you part. Capisce?"

"Yes ma'am." she grinned. "I'll remember that touching speak and use it against you when it's your turn and you're shaking in your boots."

"Someone will need to. I'll never be able to give myself good advice."

"No one ever can." she assured me. "It's weird though, isn't it?"

"What?"

"_This_. Getting married, growing up - it's just not like us."

"No one gets married everyday, Claire." I said. "I know it's weird, but honestly, you'll see that your life won't really change that much. I mean, there'll be a few things here and there, but nothing extravagant. When you start having kids - _then _things will change."

She smiled and put her head on my shoulder. "And what about you?" she asked. "What will you do?"

I shrugged. "I've still got Abi and Eli. Besides, just because you're married doesn't meant that you're taken away to some forbidden land where only those who are legally joined can go. I'll still be around."

She laughed, "I'll miss your crazy imagination."

I turned to her then. "Claire, why are you talking to me as if you'll never see me again?"

"I'm not gonna see you for a while, we're going away for a month after this - a month is a long time. And knowing you, a lot can happen in a month."

I grinned. "Oh I get it. You think that in the next month I will be up to my old tricks again and do something stupid that will get me killed?"

"I have more faith in you than that. But with you on your own a lot, I'm just worried about what you might do to pass the time if I'm not here."

I scoffed. "I have other friends than just you. There's Abi-"

"You can't just live with Abi for the next month."

"I'm _not_." I didn't know what else to say after that. Instead, I stared out the window, hoping that she would change the subject or her father would come in and tell her it was time.

But no one came in.

"Renesmee," she said quietly. "You look sleepy. Your eyes are dark - when was the last time you slept? How much sleep did you have last night?"

"I'm fine." I insisted. "Just... Bad dreams."

"Uh-hu, _that's_ your excuse, now tell me the _truth_."

I sighed. "Just don't push the subject, okay? - I was alone again last night."

"What do you mean you were alone?"

"I was alone. My family were "hunting" and Jacob was being his weird, usual self and out doing god knows what."

She frowned. "What's wrong with that-?"

"Look, Claire, right now isn't the time to talk about it-"

"But I want to help-"

"You can't help." I snapped. "Unless you can stop my paranoia or whatever keeps stalking me, then you can't help."

"_Stalking _you?" she repeated. "Renesmee, what the hell is going on-?"

"Claire?" her father peeked round the door and the anger that started to rise died.

I smiled in her father's direction and then looked back at her.

"I think it's time for me to go." then I pulled her in and hugged her. "Don't worry about me." I whispered. "It's your day, make the most of it. Good luck, you look _beautiful_."

I stood behind Claire's sister through the ceremony. Through a majority of the time, I found myself watching the audience, mainly her mother. She was sat in the front row, crying. As they said their vowels, I felt like I could almost see their hearts racing. Out of nerves or excitement, I didn't know.

Jacob was stood behind Quil and I caught his eye from time to time. Although, when I watched him, on the odd occasion he _wasn't_ look at me, he seemed to be all here. There wasn't anything distracting him and he seemed content - which was kind of weird.

After the ceremony, I joined Jacob who had been waiting for me down the other end of the aisle.

"Hey!" I smiled as I slid my fingers through his.

"Hi." he grinned and leaned in to kiss me. "You look...stunning." he said as our lips separated.

"Thank you, Alice's choice."

"Of course." then he studied me for a moment. "Although, would I be wrong is saying you're something like _sleeping beauty_?" he asked. "You look exhausted and they day's barely begun."

I rolled my eyes and patted just below my eyes. "Sorry, didn't sleep too well."

"How come?"

_Lie, Renesmee. Lie. Lie. LIE._

"Bad dreams. The usual."

"You need to stop watching scary movies."

I snorted. "I may have barely anything to do nowadays, but I haven't sunk _that_ low." I insisted.

As he smiled, I spotted my parent behind him. They had just started talking to Claire's mom, who was still drying her eyes. I caught Bella's eye and smiled, she smiled beautifully in return. Even now, my mom didn't like to dress up, but she'd been forced into wearing the stunning green silk dress she was wearing now by Alice. But then again, we'd all been forced to wear what Alice wanted.

Jacob noticed my gaze fall on Bella and he looked over his shoulder. When he spotted them, I noticed his body tense up. Then he looked back at me.

"I'll be right back." he told me and walked away in their direction, leaving me on my own, again.

It was at twilight when I found myself _completely _alone. I was outside whilst the others had been pushed inside by the chilly wind, but I stuck it out.

Loneliness, it was something I had grown accustom too recently. I didn't like it, but I was used to it. In fact, it was the loneliness that had kept me awake last night. It was the cold chill of the everlasting invisible presence that dwelled in my room last night that kept me awake. Every time I tried to slip away into sleep, a cold breath would run over my shoulder and my eyes would lock open for another hour before I attempted sleep again.

It made me feel sick.

Sick with fear.

And how was I meant to explain that to Claire and Jacob? It was easy to tell Abi that sort of thing because she already knew when it had started a week or so ago at my father's piano.

My eyes flickered with tiredness as I looked out at the forest.

"Who are you?" I asked it. "And what do you want?"

"How much have you been drinking?" I heard Claire's voice behind me and I nearly flew out of my skin.

"Jesus, you scared me."

"Sorry."

She was alone, which was odd. Shouldn't she be on the arm of her groom? Her husband?

"Where's the rest of the package deal?" I asked her, turning back to the forest.

"I was looking for you, and when someone told me that you were out here on your own, I decided that I would join you on my own too."

I smiled. "How thoughtful."

"What's wrong?" she asked.

I shrugged. "I'm just thinking. Nothing too dangerous, don't worry."

She laughed, "What are you thinking about?"

"Whether I have a stalker or a secret admirer on my hands."

"It's probably just your imagination." she giggled. "But that _is_ why I wanted to find you - to carry on our conversation from earlier-"

"Are you determined for me to ruin your wedding day?"

"Ness, I highly doubt you'll ruin my day."

"We're not meant to discuss serious things on wedding days, only happy times and the bride's dress."

"Okay, so how would a discussion about me being pregnant go? Or is that too serious?"

I looked straight at her then. "Are you serious?"

She grinned. "No. But I just wanted to demonstrate that you can have both serious and happy things on a wedding day. Besides, I'm relying on you to bring me the wedding drama."

"_The wedding drama_?"

"Yeah, y'know, the drama. The betrayal, the awkwardness, the cheating groom - come on, be creative."

I grinned, "I did consider giving a reason at the ceremony why you two should not be wed."

"You wouldn't."

"I kept quiet didn't I?"

"For _your_ wedding's sake, I'm glad you did."

I grinned and looked away from her again. Just as I did, I heard the door behind us open.

"Hey!" smiled Claire. I followed her gaze and saw Quil walk over to her.

"Hey, I was wondering where you were. Hi Ness."

"Hi," I smiled.

"What are you doing out here on your own?" he asked.

"Thinking."

"Uh-oh." he laughed. Claire nudged him in the ribs.

"What?" he said, innocently. "I was just asking. Listen, I was coming to see if you wanted to dance, but if you wanna stay here-"

"No, no, no," I insisted. "Claire, you go with Quil."

"Are you sure?"

"Claire, you only have one first wedding - make the most of it. Go. Don't worry, I'll be fine. Congratulations you guys. And Quil - look after her. Otherwise I will have to hunt you down."

He smiled. "I'll look after her; you won't have to worry about that."

"Good."

Just as they turned to the door, Claire reached back for my hand.

"Come inside soon, won't you? It's getting cold and I don't like the thought of you not having fun and being out here on your own."

"I'm fine, Claire. Seriously. Besides, I'm becoming used to being on my own. Maybe I like my own company?"

She smiled supportively and they went inside.

Admittedly, it only got colder. But I stood my ground and stayed outside, my mind packed with my own riddles and rubix cubes.

As I stood, the wind died and the air turned a nice lukewarm temperature. And as I stood, a familiar chill ran over my shoulders, but I didn't move. I didn't even flinch. I stood and let it flow over my shoulders.

I feared it with every ounce of fear in my body, but I didn't try to fight it. There was no use in fighting it. It would be like trying to wrestle with air.

A numb sensation replaced the blood in my veins, but still I did not move. Maybe if I stood still for long enough it would either disappear or make itself known.

It was when I heard a low giggle that I turned. It had never made a noise before. Whatever it was, it was female - I knew that much. No male could have a laugh like that.

I backed towards the door and just as I reached for it, the door opened and I flinched.

"Whoa, someone's a little jumpy." said Jacob as he stepped outside. The air was normal again and the only presence I felt was him.

"Are you alright?" he asked. I nodded."

"I'm fine, I'm fine." I insisted. "Just a little tense."

"Yeah, I can see that." he said, "What are you doing out here on your own?"

"Thinking about going back in."

"I've been looking for you."

"Well, you found me."

Music from inside seeped out the open door.

"I was going to ask you to dance with me, that is if I found you." and he held out his hand. Suddenly, any resentment I had to him from earlier just flooded out of me. I smiled and nodded.

"What kind of fiancé would I be if I rejected a dance?"

He grinned and took my waist and guided me away from the door.

"So," he said as we started to turn. "Looking at today, how do you feel about _our_ wedding?"

"Nervous, excited - the same feelings I've had all along. What about you?"

"Well, now that I've seen Quil go through it, everything seems really now."

"You mean that before everything felt like a dream? A figment of your imagination?"

He laughed. "Marrying someone like you will always feel like a dream to me."

"Stop acting as if I'm too good for you - you can't possibly believe that."

"I do, a lot of the time. I'm always afraid of losing you - is that so wrong?"

"You should never ever be afraid of losing me, because it won't happen. I could never love anyone like I love you."

"I don't just mean losing you to another guy."

I sighed, "You mean losing me to someone else called 'Death', right?"

He nodded, "I've noticed how, recently, I must be acting pretty weird through your eyes."

"Weird doesn't even cut it, but continue."

"That's what I'm trying to get at. I know that you want to know what I've been doing. But all you need to know is that you _don't_ need to know what it is, other than I'm not telling you for your own good."

"Jake, I have enough riddles going through my head right now-"

"For your safety, it's better if you don't try to get involved. What I'm doing, I'm doing for your own good and what I'm not telling you, I'm not telling you for your own good - get it?"

I frowned at him. He wasn't telling me "for my own good" but that's always his excuse for not telling me things. Let's face it, if I didn't need to worry then he would tell me. But if I _did _need to worry, then he would do everything in his power to stop me from finding out.

**Hope you enjoyed it!**

**Let me know what you thought, please review! :)**

**and I'll try to update soon x**


	6. Patience

**Okay, this is short again. But this chapter ISN'T in Renesmee's POV - I decided that there might be a few of these from now and again. These 'mini chapters' are always in the perspective of the same person - so this is the same POV as the preface... does that make sense?**

**Patience**

IT'S WORKING. SHE SUSPECTS, SHE'S FRIGHTENED AND BETTER YET, SHE'S _ALONE_. They're looking for me; they're looking for what she thinks brings the chills to her when no one is there to help her. She thinks she's paranoid and her friends think the same - this is perfect.

I watch her.

I watch over her when she's alone and I play. I play games with her. I am so close to her that I practically breathe down her neck.

And it scares her. Oh, how it scares her. She doesn't know whether she should be afraid of the ghostly presence or not and I find her fear amusing, her confusion makes me laugh. I can smell the fear radiate off her whenever I'm close enough.

And they leave her, on her own, in that house or with a human. Don't they know how close I am to her? How close I have come to taking her life?

Don't they smell my presence when they return home to find her alone and shaking?

It's almost like they _want_ me to kill her.

Oh Renesmee. Young, naive Renesmee. You never learn, do you? You fight battles with your eyes shut and claim that you're winning, even when you're being pinned down on the floor. Begging for mercy. You're a little soldier, there's no doubt about that. You're just a very stupid soldier, there's your trouble.

It takes every ounce of my strength not to lunge for the kill when I have her alone. But I'm not done yet. Yes, I toy with her enough to give her sleepless nights and nervous breakdowns at the thought for being alone. But I'm not done yet. I have a plan, but to do it I'll need something. I'll need a human.

With her family away, searching for me - I have every opportunity to take her down. After all, she's weak, she's vulnerable and she's alone. No one should ever be left alone. Not when they're being hunted.

**Hope you liked it and aren't too confused...**

**The next chapter which IS in Renesmee's POV will be up probably tomorrow :)**

**Anyway, let me know what you think, even if you are confused and I'll try to to explain without giving anything away :)**

**please review! and I'll update very soon! x**


	7. The Hunter and The Hunted

**Okay, here's the next chapter!**

**Enjoy! :)**

**The Hunter and The Hunted**

EVEN THE WIND THAT WHIPPED THROUGH MY HAIR FROM THE HALF OPEN CAR window couldn't keep me awake. Having a three hour sleep last night had been the longest sleep I'd had in nearly two weeks and that had only happened because Jacob was with me. If I had been alone, I wouldn't have slept at all.

I leant my head against the window in the passenger seat of the Mustang on a humid Friday evening. The Friday of Abi's late - especially for her cousin - birthday party. I had sort of been looking forward to this party all week. With Claire on her honeymoon, I only had Abi and Eli. It had been another rough, lonely week and this party was the exact thing I needed to take my mind off things. And the fact that I had Jacob for two nights in a row- couldn't be something to complain about.

"Why have you been like such a zombie recently?" Jacob asked from the driver's seat.

I grinned. "We prefer being referred to as 'The Walking Dead'" I said. "And it generally happens when you don't get enough sleep."

"I know that." he insisted. "But why haven't you been sleeping? I keep meaning to ask you."

"Bad dreams-"

"Crap." he said. "I believed that at first, Ness, but no one - not even you - can have nightmares every night for two weeks." then he reach over for my hand. "C'mon, tell me what's going on."

"I will when you do."

"C'mon, Ness we've talked about this-"

"Jacob, it's not fair that you're not telling me. I have the right to know."

"Just give me some more time-"

"I've given you two _months._" I snapped. "How much time do you need?"

"As much as I can." he said, subdued. "Can we just not talk about it? I'm sorry. I won't question your strange sleeping habits again."

Was he seriously _this_ desperate to keep me in the dark?

Although, as always, I wanted to push the subject. But my time with Jacob was always limited nowadays and I didn't want to fight with him, so I stopped.

Over the last few days, I'd been with Abi. We'd been preparing for this party and with Abi's excitement you would have thought it was Christmas. Of course, she was just excited to see her cousin again. India was a long way off and considering that Abi's birthday was during the summer - flights weren't going cheap.

My eyes gently started to shut again against the window and as my head drooped down, Jacob nudged me.

"Don't fall asleep on me now. We're not even at the party yet."

"I'm not sleeping; I'm just thoughtfully closing my eyes."

"Do you wanna go home-?"

"No." I snapped. "I need to go to this party. I need to get out of the house and take my mind off of things."

"What things?"

"Renesmee things."

I lost count of the amount of cars outside Abi's house. We had to park my car further up the road, which meant a longer walk. For some reason, Jacob wasn't too keen on walking all this way and something told me it wasn't the effort that was the problem.

We walked up the road together with Jacob's hand around my waist. There was something about the way he walked and the way he seemed that made me reluctant to speak to him. I tried not to class it as awkwardness- because it wasn't. It was just... Me being scared of getting on his bad side. After Quil and Claire's wedding, I didn't ask Jacob where he'd been again. Although it always bit away at me, I always felt the urge to ask even when I knew I'd never get a proper answer and the same went for my parents. I didn't even try to ask them.

Standing outside Abi's house was like standing outside a nightclub. The music shook the ground and it was surprising that even their neighbours who lived not far down the road hadn't come up to complain.

Inside, the house was unrecognisable. Abi's house was pretty big and I actually really liked her house, but with all these people it was amazing there was enough oxygen for everyone to breathe. I recognised some people from school but a majority of them seemed too far away to recognise me.

"Renesmee! Hey Renesmee!" I heard Eli's voice amongst the music and turned.

He dodged between dancing teenagers from the living room and joined us in the still cramped hallway.

"Hey!" I yelled, even when he was right in front of me.

"This is some party, huh?"

"Yeah," I said, "It's pretty impressive for Abi."

He shrugged, "Well, I helped."

I raised an eyebrow. "Of course, you, 'the social one'."

"More sociable than you - or is that just a family trait?"

I grinned and then laughed, "Completely. It's a family trait that I'm unsociable." I punched him in the arm and pulled him closer.

"Have you seen Abi?"

He shook his head. "Not for a while. Last time I saw her she was in the kitchen - you could try there but god knows where she is now."

"Okay, thanks! I'll find you later!" and I pulled Jacob away with me to the kitchen.

Admittedly, it was a little quieter in the kitchen. I could hear myself think a little better. But Eli had been right in thinking that Abi wouldn't be in there anymore, she wasn't, but Embry was in there - which I guess was a relief for Jacob.

"Hey!" Embry smiled. "I thought you were never gonna show up."

"No better way to arrive to a party other than fashionably late." Jacob stated as he leant against the counter next to him.

Then Embry looked at me. "Y'know, I may not know a lot about make up, but I'm pretty sure the eye shadow is meant to go above your eye, not underneath it." he grinned.

"Nice to see you too." I said, leaning into Jacob. "It's natural eye shadow actually. Little sleep generally does that to a person."

"Of course, how much sleep did you get _last _night?"

"I slept for three hours!" I said, proudly.

"Wow! A whole three hours! You're getting lazier, Renesmee."

Then I looked past him, just as Abi appeared from the living room with a girl who looked a little older than her in tow.

"Renesmee! Jacob! I was wondering where you were!" she skipped over and threw her arms around me. Her hug had taken me by surprise; I wasn't sure how to respond at first.

"Hi." I said through crushed lungs. As she let me go my eyes fell on the girl she brought in.

"So _this_ is Renesmee." she said, closing in on Abi.

"Yeah, Renesmee - this is my cousin, Tracy. The one I told you about - who lives in India."

"Hi." we both said in unison shaking the other's hand.

"It must be amazing to live in India." I said, looking enviously down her tanned arms.

"Well, the weathers a damn sight better there than it is here, that's for sure." she smiled.

"But it's so far away. Why did you even move there in the first place?"

"I had a friend over there who invited me for a couple of weeks and I just fell in love with it. I only came back for a year and decided that actually India was where I wanted to be."

"And so you just left?"

She nodded. "There were a few things I needed to sort out first, legal stuff and living costs etcetera, but I was out of Washington and out of western civilisation pretty quick."

Well, no one could doubt her sureness. I guess it was still nice of her to come over for her cousin, even if she did seem to hate it here. In a way I envied her. I wanted to travel the world - heck, I had god knows how many centuries on me and I sure as hell didn't want to spend my entire life in America, let alone Forks.

When I studied her for a moment, I realised that she was quite pretty. She must have looked beautiful when she joined the Indian culture and dressed in beautifully embroidered saris.

I wasn't sure if it was the idea of blending in with a completely new culture or just the idea of getting away that I envied. Recently, home hadn't felt like home anymore. At home you're meant to feel safe and 'safe' was the last thing I felt. And at home you're meant to be surrounded by your family and your loved ones - whereas the only company I had nowadays was loneliness.

Okay, so Tracy wasn't with her family, so on that basis she couldn't call India home. But at least she felt safe. At least she was away from her problems.

"Okay!" said Abi. "Now that you're here - Jacob, is it alright if I steal Renesmee away from you for a while?"

"As long as you return her how you left with her." he called.

"Don't worry, I'll keep her safe!" and she dragged me away with Tracy.

Only an hour later I'd lost Abi and Tracy. When she dragged me into the dense crowd of dancing people, it was impossible to stay with her. When I accepted that she had been absorbed into the crowd, I tried to fight my way out. The journey out of the crowd consisted of nothing but dodging raving bodies, nearly being pushed over and continuous butt grabbing.

I was relieved to see the light from the kitchen and staggered over to the door, only to find a random couple making out in the corner and not another soul in sight.

Jacob and Embry were gone.

I silently slithered through the kitchen to the hallway. There was no way I was going through the living room again.

The hallway was pretty packed too. Just as I reached the stairs and considered going up them, someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned to find Seth standing behind me.

"Seth!" I smiled, "What're you doing here?"

"I was invited."

"_Invited_? Abi invited you?"

"I _am _friends with her, Ness. You're not the only friend she has."

"I can see that." I said, looking around at the crowds of people. "Hey, have you seen Jake?"

He shook his head. "I didn't even know he was here. I thought you two might have ditched the party."

"I wouldn't ditch Abi's party."

"Well, no, I haven't seen him. When was the last time you saw him?"

"In the kitchen, an hour ago. Abi dragged me off into the living room and then when I went back he was gone - so was Embry."

"I'm sure it's nothing to worry about." he insisted, "Maybe he's just in the bathroom."

I looked around us again, hoping that maybe Jacob was close - but he wasn't. Seth patted my arm. "D'you wanna go through the dining in room, it's quieter there."

I nodded and we slithered through the crowd at the foot of the stairs and sneaked through the dining room.

"Has he ditched me?" I asked, sitting in an empty armchair.

"_No_." Seth insisted, sitting on the arm of the chair. "Jake wouldn't do that to you."

"Trust me, Seth, it wouldn't surprise me. You _know_ how weird he's been lately."

"I know, I know. I just don't think that you need to worry. Maybe he's looking for you? Maybe you're just both in the wrong place at the wrong time?"

"Maybe-"

"Hey!" Embry appeared from the dining room and leant against the wall next to the chair. "Have either of you seen Abi?"

Seth shook his head.

"The last time I saw her was about twenty minutes ago, in the crowd of people in the living room. After that she got sucked into the land of the unknown." I told him. "Have you seen Jake?"

"Not since I left him."

"Why did you leave him?"

"To find Abi."

"Oh." then I looked up at Seth. "Well, I think it's time we start our own little search party."

And we did. Together we searched the house and amazingly didn't lose one another. Even upstairs where countless does we're shut and locked, both entry forbidden and in use. As we were about to brave the living room, Seth asked some guy who passed us if he'd seen Abi. He told us that she'd gone out the back with some girl, who I guessed was Tracy.

Abi's house reminded me of my own when it came to the backyard. There was no fencing and the yard backed into the forest, which always made it that bit easier for Embry if he was visiting her just after patrolling.

Out on the deck, the outside was empty. The trees were silhouettes against the navy sky. Either the guy lied to us or he'd seen them here a long time ago.

"She's not here." Seth stated. "Where else could she be?"

Embry shrugged. "I don't know, but we'll have to search inside again. C'mon!"

Just as we turned, screams echoed in the forest. And one of them was undoubtedly Abi's. The three of us bolted into the forest. As soon as we passed the trees, Seth and Embry phased, which meant it was down to me to repetitively call her name.

I'd only called for Abi twice when we saw the silhouette of a figure standing, shaking in the distance.

"Abi?" I yelled and sprinted for her. The figured turned lightly at the name and was whimpering when we got there.

I was Abi, thank god. But her hair was matted and her glamorous party outfit now covered in blood.

"Abi-" I reached for her and she started to squirm. "Abi, Abi - it's me! It's Renesmee!"

"She's gone!" she screamed at me.

"Who?" I asked, bewildered.

"Tracy! They took her! _It_ took her!" then she broke down in tears and collapsed into me. I held her tight and stroked her hair.

"It's okay, it's okay" I reassured her, "We're here. We're gonna take you back home-"

"What about Trac-"

"We'll find her, but first we need to get you home." Embry phased back into human form then and Abi left my arms for his. Her crying became harder when she was in his arms, whether the fear grew more or she was crying with relief, I didn't know.

"Come on." Embry whispered to her. "We'll take you back. We'll call off the party and you can relax- _Renesmee_!"

But he was too slow; I had already bolted away from them to search for Tracy. Just as I picked up speed, I ran into something as hard as rock that sent me to the ground. I looked up to find another wolf standing in front of me. Jacob.

As I returned to my feet, his eyes were telling me to turn around and leave. Although his stare was fierce, I knew that two could play at that game.

"Jacob, I need to find her."

He edged forward and lowered his head as if giving final warning. But I stood my ground.

Just as I was about to make another run for it, arms flew round me and I was being dragged away from Jacob.

"Jake! You can't do this alone!" I yelled. As he turned, he looked back at me with a look that said "I'm not."

"Seth! Let me go!" I yelled as he continued to drag me away. It was annoying how strong he was.

"No, come on - stop- squirming-!" just then I managed to escape his clutch and spared no time to assemble myself. I was far away from him within a second, but I still heard him call my name before a roar echoed and I knew he was hunting me down.

I picked up my pace and regretted it when I tripped and went flying. I smashed my shoulder against a tree and yelped.

Pain shot down my arm as I slowly pushed myself off the ground. Only then did I hear the gasps and screams behind me. I turned sharply to find a body on the floor, squirming and bending in ways no human ever should.

Tracy.

I forgot about the pain in my shoulder as I fell to the ground to help her. The blood smelt like toxic fumes coming from her body, it wasn't sweet, it wasn't mouth-watering - it was changing. I could see the gaping hole in her neck when she'd been bitten.

"No." I whispered. "No, no, _no_!"

As I reached for her a breeze whipped past my hair. I shuddered and stood.

It was here.

I knew it wasn't paranoia and I knew that someone had actually been following me for the last couple of weeks. And they were here right now. I could feel it.

I turned to scan the forest behind me and the breeze came again, followed by the silencing of Tracy's screams and gasps.

I looked down at her body again to find it missing. She was gone - her body was... _Gone_?

How is that-

The breeze took her. The thing, the feeling, the creep that had been stalking me had taken her.

Seth bounded onto the scene with energy, but the action and excitement was already over. Tracy and the thing were gone, long gone. How could I explain this to Abi? She would hate me if I told her the breeze had anything to do with it; she already thought I was crazy and paranoid.

I left with Seth without argument this time, but he still kept close by me in case I was to run after anything else.

The journey out the forest was silent, but I couldn't talk, even if I tried. I felt vomit boiling in the pit of my stomach, tears stinging my tear ducts and a throbbing shoulder.

At the edge of the forest, Jacob greeted Seth with an acknowledging nod whilst he greeted me with fire burning in his eyes.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Jacob snapped at me.

"Abi was alone out there; I couldn't just leave her-"

"You know what I mean." he snapped. "You'd found Abi, she was unharmed and yet you had to be the hero and run out into the forest."

"Because Tracy was still out here-"

"Seth," he looked away from me then. "Go get Embry and Leah, and then go to the Reservation. I'll meet you there after I've taken Renesmee home. We've got a little hunting adventure to go on."

Seth looked at me for a moment and then nodded before heading towards the house.

Jacob looked back at me, then he took my arm and we headed past the house to the road where my car was.

"Y'know Renesmee, for someone who knows a lot you sure are stupid sometimes."

"Thanks, is a gift."

He stopped and turned me to face him. "Don't be a smart ass. Stop acting as if everything is fine and dandy and that the forest is a perfectly safe place to be at night."

"Well, you don't give me a straight reason as to why it isn't a safe place. So, until you give me the reason, I will continue to do what I want, when I want."

"No, you will go where I tell, when I tell and with who I tell you to. Okay?"

"Okay, well it's a vampire; I've figured out that much. God Jake, why can you never tell me these things? What is it that you seem to think I can't handle? I'm not three years old anymore; I would've thought you'd've gathered that by now - after everything."

"Look, now isn't the time to discuss this-"

"There never _is_ a time to discuss it, Jacob. Not with you. You'll never tell me until I find out some other way and then you'll assure me that you were going to tell me, which is a total lie-!"

"Renesmee, stop it. I'm taking you home-" he grabbed my arm and tried to pull me away.

"No!" I sounded a lot more desperate than intended.

"Why?" he stopped and looked sternly at me. "What's wrong?"

"I know how this is going to work. You'll take me home; tell my family that something happened and then all of you will disappear into the night, leaving me alone for yet another sleepless night sitting in the corner of my room with a baseball bat."

"What are you talking about-?"

"Jacob, I can't stand another night alone in that house. _Please, _for the sake of my sanity don't leave me."

"Ness, what-"

"You wanna know why I don't sleep when you all leave me? It's because I'm not alone. I know it. There is someone else in that house with me; they just never show their face. I always thought that maybe it was paranoia, but now I'm certain that it's not."

He just looked at me, shocked.

"That's why I don't want to be alone." I added. "I'm _terrified_, Jacob. And you're not even around enough to see it."

Then I stormed away towards my car, leaving a bewildered Jacob behind.

**Hope you liked it!**

**I promise that the suspense of 'the breeze' will be solved very soon :)**

**anyway, let me know what you think! Please review!**

**and I'll try to update soon! x**


	8. The Wreckage and The Sickening Truth

**Okay, here's the next chapter!**

**Enjoy! :)**

**The Wreckage and The Sickening Truth**

ELI WAS ALMOST ASLEEP AT THE OTHER END OF THE COUCH. HIS HEAD WAS tilted back, his arm hung over the back if the couch and his legs stretched in different directions.

"Make yourself at home." I quietly snorted to myself, looking back at the novel I held in my hands.

"I heard that, Cullen." he mumbled and then rubbed his eyes open. "When's your wolf friend getting here?"

"In a while. You're just early."

"There's nothing wrong with being early. I just wanted to make sure you were protected for longer." he looked at me with that boyish grin plastered in his face. I laughed and hit his leg with my foot.

"What good is a hero who spends half his time asleep?"

He grinned at me and his arm flopped over her eyes.

This was meant to be my parents' way of protecting me whilst they ran around the states looking for either the vampire or Tracy. After last night, Abi wasn't exactly up to socialising much - she was really shaken up. So, seeing as Claire wasn't due back for a few weeks my parents arranged for Eli to keep me company along with Seth. Obviously, with a vampire running around, the only way Eli could help me would be his being a walking blood bag as a distraction.

They had only left twenty minutes ago and were supposed to be meeting Jacob and the wolves in the forest, with the exception of Seth who would leave them as soon as they were on their way.

My fight with Jacob at Abi's house last night hadn't quite finished with me walking away.

"Why didn't you say anything?" he asked after the long silence on the drive home.

"Well you never tell me anything-"

"But you said so yourself that it scares you - why didn't you say you were scared to be alone?

"Because I knew that I would see you less."

"How do you know that?"

"Because you'd have more determination to put an end to it. So would my family."

"But we wouldn't leave you alone." he assured me, his voice soft and quiet.

"Really? You would stay with me?"

"I'm not saying that _I_ would, but we would have someone with you all the time - trust me."

I sighed and turned away from him to look out my window.

"Ness-" he took my hand. "Don't get angry, _please_."

"You just got really angry at me!"

"Don't you think I had the right to be mad?"

"Don't you think I do too?" I argued. "When is it going to sink in, Jacob? When will you realise that you're making things worse by being away from me?"

"When will you see that it's for your own good?"

"I couldn't care less about what's for 'my own good'"

"I can see that. Shame that nobody else agrees. Listen, it's tough for me to be away too, but the thought of it keeping you safe is what keeps me going, so does the thought of you waiting for me."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that the thought of being with you again keeps me going and encourages me to never give up."

"But why can't you just let me help? You could always use an extra hand, right? The more, the merrier!"

"The more, the bloodier. Trust me when I say this, Ness - it is a lot more dangerous for _you _than what you think."

I'm still puzzled as to what that meant. Why was it more dangerous for me? Was it because I'm not as strong as my family? Or was he referring to my history of stupid decisions?

I never asked him what that meant because I knew I'd be wasting my breath.

After roughly ten minutes, Seth arrived. He was his usual happy, light hearted self which really eased the tension that I constantly felt. It was strange how the house changed when he walked through the front door. Before he arrived, there was only me and Eli and there was a lingering threat of an unwanted presence. But the second Seth arrived, that vanished and the weight on my shoulders lifted.

"So, what exactly are your family up to out there?" asked Eli.

"Hunting - or so they say. They're not actually food hunting anymore, it's real hunting."

"I never really understood that."

"Understood what?"

"Well," he sat up in the couch. "How do you hunt? Do you set traps? Shoot them?"

I smiled. "We run, jump them and bite them - simple."

His face flooded color. "Seriously? You hunt them down with your bare hands - even bears?"

"Well, Emmett generally goes for the bears. He taught me how to catch one - even someone at my level can do it!"

"What exactly is your level?"

"Hybrid. Half vampire." I grinned, "Duh?"

All the talk of hunting had made me thirsty. I didn't hesitate to leave Seth and Eli for the kitchen, but as soon as I headed away, Seth followed me.

"Don't worry, Seth. You don't have to act like my shadow - I'm fine, really."

"No, I just wanted to talk to you." he assured me.

I took a bag of blood from the refrigerator and grabbed a glass before turning around to face him.

"Talk to me?" I asked, pouring the blood into the glass. "What about-" I paused for a moment. "Wait - did Jacob put you up to this?"

He grinned, "Surprisingly, no. I'm talking to you on my own accord - why? Am I more likely to get straight answers if Jake had told me to interrogate you?"

I scoffed. "Complete opposite actually. But anyway, what is it you want to talk about?"

"When you told Jake about the weird feeling you get - you were pretty brief. He couldn't tell us much, so I just wondered what you really feel when you have these 'feelings'"

"Oh." I took a large gulp of blood before heading over to the large glass dinner table. "Well," I took a seat and Seth took the one next to me, facing me. "It's pretty hard to describe. It's like I can feel someone watching me, literally on the other side of the room, watching me. But sometimes they're closer than that. Sometimes they breathe on me, I can feel a cold breath just brush my neck or my hair. Then there'll be a breeze, like someone rushing past me, behind me-" I looked at him then. "I know this sounds weird, even insane-"

"No, no, no - it doesn't sound insane. Is there anything else?"

"Not really, other than I feel myself go cold, even numb. And I get scared."

He looked at me for a long while. "Why didn't you tell anybody?"

"I told Abi and semi told Claire."

"Okay, why didn't you tell someone who could do something about it?"

"Because no one could do anything about it, Seth. If I couldn't understand it - how is anyone else meant to?"

"We have our ways." he grinned. "But, you shouldn't get too worked up about it. I know it's scary, but don't give it the satisfaction of your fear."

"So you don't think its paranoia? You genuinely believe that something is stalking me?"

He nodded. "I do. But you've been given plenty of reasons in your life for it to be paranoia. The key is to not let it weaken you, I'm not telling you to ignore it, I'm just telling you to show no fear and then it will weaken... Hopefully."

I smiled at him and leaned forward to hug him.

"Thank you." I mumbled into his shoulder.

"No problem. But I mean it - don't let it bug you."

"I won't." I said and let him go. Then I stared at him for a while, thoughtfully. "Why haven't you imprinted, Seth?"

My question had taken him by surprise and he looked at me with shock plastered on his face for quite some time.

"I don't know - it just hasn't happened. Why?"

"I was just thinking that someone like you could make some girl very happy and it seems strange that you haven't found one yet."

He stared at me for a moment and then started to laugh. "I've got plenty of time to find myself someone, Renesmee-"

"What about Tracy?"

He raised an eyebrow at me. "You mean the one who got dragged away last night by a vampire? That one?"

"I don't think she's dead Seth." I told him.

"Neither do I, but still."

"What?"

"She's like seven years older than me."

"Age is just a number. Look at me and Jacob for example and Quil and Claire - you can't get much bigger age gaps than that - well, unless you bring my parents into it-"

"Listen, as much as I appreciate your help, I think I'll pass on this matchmaking session, thanks."

I shrugged. "Suit yourself, but I'm always here if you want help-" a weird sensation flooded my body. I stopped talking and just sat perfectly still. There was a strange buzzing around me. A buzzing that I had never felt. It felt almost like a force around me, a bubble.

"Do you feel that?" I asked him.

"Feel what?"

"That - that buzzing, that bubble?"

"No." he reached for my hand. "Hey, are you alright?"

"I don't know. It's weird, I could have sworn I felt like I was being-" before I finished, a pain erupted in my head and I screamed. I held both hands to my forehead as my vision changed. In the midst of dark flashes, I saw the forest; I saw it as if I were running through it. Through darkness, trees flew past me and I could hear the leaves rustling at my speed.

Then it was gone.

I was back at the table with Seth and the pain was gone. Eli had joined us at the sound of my scream.

Seth had his hand on my shoulders. "What happened?" he asked.

"Yeah, are you okay?" asked Eli.

"I-I don't know. I don't know what happened, I just saw... Something."

"Well, what did you see?" Seth asked.

"The forest."

"_The forest_?"

"Yeah, I was running through it and there was darkness and leaves rustling and flying around-"

"Okay, okay - has that ever happened before?"

"No. Never. I usually get a shiver and I go cold but I didn't feel any of that. I just... Saw the forest."

"Yup, you're going crazy." stated Eli. Seth gave him a cold glare before he turned away. As I heard Eli near the door there was a loud bang and clatter outside that shook the ground. Seth and I flew off our chairs and Eli ran with us to the front door.

"What the-?" said Eli as we ran out onto the front porch. I looked into the forest; sure that it was the source of the crash.

"Err, Renesmee... You might wanna look at this." I heard Eli say behind me. He was facing the driveway and as I turned I felt my heart drop to the pit of my stomach.

"My- my _car_." I whimpered. On the driveway were three cars. My Mustang had been in the very middle, between Carlisle and Emmett's cars.

_Had_ been.

Now what stood in its place was a giant ball of red, crushed up metal. A flat tyre stuck out of the ball and glass was shattered and spread around the trashed up car.

A busted rim wobbly rolled down the driveway and landed on its side in the middle on the road.

"Well," said Eli. "That... Sucks."

"Don't over sympathise, whatever you do." Seth mumbled. But I didn't speak. I couldn't. The only thing I wanted to do was cry. My Mustang was dead, crushed, destroyed and there wasn't anything I could do about it.

As the wreckage was loaded and driven away by a truck, I stood and watched on the front porch with Seth, who kept a hand on my shoulder.

"Just be thankful it wasn't you." he said.

"But that's what they're capable of. If they can do that to a car, imagine what it can do to me. Little ol' me. I'm screwed, Seth. I am completely, one hundred percent screwed."

"No you're not. Remember what I told you: don't let it get to you and don't give it the satisfaction."

As the tow truck disappeared, a car arrived - Abi's car.

"What's Abi doing here?" said Seth. Eli was on the drive where my car had once been and waved to her as he walked off the driveway.

She got out the second the engine died.

"Was that your _car_?" she asked, slamming the driver's door.

I nodded.

"Well, what are they going to do with it?" she walked up the steps and joined us on the porch, shortly followed by Eli.

I shrugged. "Recycle it probably. Who knows, maybe the next can you drink from was once a part of my car." my voice shook at the end and I turned away from them to go back inside.

"Is she alright?" Abi whispered to Seth.

"She knows that it was the... _Vampire_ who did that to her car." he replied in a low voice. "She wonders - if it can do that to her car, then what can it do to her?"

"Fair point." then the two of them fell silent as I sat on the couch. "At least you don't have to worry about that scratch anymore." said Abi, obviously trying to lighten the mood.

But I couldn't bring myself to respond. I noticed a twitching in my leg that I finally declared was shaking. After a long silence, Abi sighed and stood.

"Okay, Renesmee - we need to talk." she stated. I looked at her to find a painfully sincere look on her face.

"What about?" I asked.

"Jacob and your family haven't been honest with you-"

"Abi, don't." Seth went to grab her arm and she shook him off.

"No. C'mon Seth. I know the truth, you know the truth, everyone else knows the truth - and Renesmee remains in the dark-?"

"Yeah, for her own good-"

"God, y'know, you sound exactly like Jacob, Seth. I know he's 'in charge' of you an' all, but Renesmee's your friend. When Jacob told you the truth last night, wasn't there a single moment when you thought that he was wrong for not telling her? That they were all wrong? She _has _the right to know. And she's one of my best friends too, and I believe it's doing more damage than good her being in the dark. So I'm telling her the truth right now-"

"Abi-" Seth continued.

"Abi," I stood up. "What is it?" I asked desperately. "Please. Tell me the _truth-_"

She took a short breath, "Lauren's alive."

**I hope no one is disappointed with the mystery character...**

**I hope you enjoyed it!**

**Let me know what you think! Please review!**

**And I'll try to update soon :) x**


	9. Resentment

**Okay, here's the next chapter!**

**Enjoy!**

**P.S. Seriously, if you haven't read Full moon yet - read it. This story will make a lot more sense if you do.**

**Resentment**

"THAT'S A SICK JOKE, ABI." I SAID, MY VOICE SHAKING A LITTLE. "THAT'S NOT funny-"

"Am I laughing, Renesmee?"

She had to be wrong. She just _had _to be. There was no way in Hell that Lauren could still be alive. She'd been dead for nearly three months - or so I thought.

"No." I quietly whispered, and then I regained volume. "No, you're wrong. She's dead, Abi. She's dead. My family destroyed her when we were in Italy."

She had the looked of regret and sheer sympathy written on her face. I stared at her for a few long, silent moments.

"You not suggesting that they lied to me, are you?" I asked.

Abi sighed and hurried forward to hold my shoulders. "Renesmee, when you woke up in hospital you were so traumatised that they felt maybe it was best for you to not know the truth-"

"_Best for me_?" I snapped. "What do they know about what's best for me? Nobody knows you better than yourself, Abi. _I_ know what's best for me, not them."

Abi hesitated to reply so I carried on before she could fit another word in.

"But what does it matter? That's not true anyway. Lauren's dead and I know it-"

"Do you?" Seth cut in. "Do you really know that? Or is that what you're trying to convince yourself?"

"Seth." I growled. "I can't believe that you knew and yet when I was reaching out to you- telling you exactly how I felt about all this and what was going on, you told me nothing. You played dumb and innocent and kept me in the dark." I paused for a moment. "You're supposed to be my friend, Seth."

"I didn't tell you because-"

"-because Jacob told you not to, right?" I snapped. "He told you to keep me in the dark because that was the safer option for me."

"It _is_ a safer option-"

"A safer option for what? Our engagement? It's better if I remain unaware of Lauren walking in and around this house, is it?" I could feel the tears stinging my eyes but I tried everything in my power to hold them back. "They thought it was better I didn't know - but they were wrong. I've been living my life as normal as I can get, completely oblivious to how I'm being hunted and how close my hunter is.

I walked away from them and started pacing.

This couldn't be happening.

This couldn't be happening.

This couldn't be happening.

Seth took a step closer to me, "Renesmee, look, I know it seems hard right now - but we're here and we won't let anything happen to you-"

"Seth, cut the crap! What use are Abi and Eli besides providing snacks for when Lauren comes to seal my fate? And let's face it, Seth, you're not strong enough on your own." there was a shatter of happiness in his eyes when I said that and I felt bad. But only for a moment.

"It's not safe for you two to be here." I said to Abi and Eli, turning away from them all.

"Do you think we care?" said Eli. "Whatever we can do to keep you safe we will-"

"Eli, you don't understand-"

"No, I understand perfectly, Renesmee. You're pissed off, I get it - I would be too. But you've gotta get the idea out of your head that you're invincible-"

"I don't think I'm invincible. Do you think I would be anywhere near as terrified as I am if I thought I was invincible?"

"Then at least stop thinking that you can do it on your own."

"I don't think I can do it on my own, but I'm going to try... When the time is right-"

"We don't _have _time, Renesmee." said Seth. "You're not going to deal with this - we are."

I turned slightly and looked at Seth. He was looking at with the wannabe hero look in his eyes. He reminded me of a child who wants to face the monster in the closet - it was sad in a way.

Then, I let out a long sigh as I turned to face them full on. "Y'know what the sad thing is?" I asked, looking at all three of them. "You don't have a choice."

I wandered over to a glass table by the front door and looked down at the receipt given by the tow truck guy. Whenever I looked at that receipt, I saw the crushed metal ball of my Mustang on the driveway; I saw what Lauren was more than capable of. If she could do that to a two tonne car, imagine what she could do to just one measly human.

Three months ago, I discovered that my gift had developed in a way so extraordinary that it made my gift one of the most powerful any vampire could possess. Upon this discovery, I vowed to never use my gift against anyone I cared about - unless it was an emergency.

This _was_ an emergency.

I needed them to leave. I needed them to stay away. I needed time to... collect my thoughts. So I turned to them.

"I think it's time for you to leave now." I told them and opened the front door.

"Renesmee, we're not leaving-"

"Seth. I wasn't asking. It's time for you to leave."

I stared at each of them, my mind running with the demand: "Leave this house now and don't return." and one by one they left through the open front door.

As I shut the front door, my heart was pounding hard, low and strong with the pain of making them leave. It was then I realised how much I could get away with by having this gift. The only problem was that I wasn't too good at it when I was in fear. I needed a great deal of concentration to do it and when under pressure, that concentration was hard to find.

So there I was. Alone, in my house - the one thing I dreaded the most. It was probably the stupidest thing I could have done right now considering I had no idea how close Lauren was, but I didn't care. I left the door and sat on the couch, my back straight and my hands nestled in my lap.

They _lied_ to me. How _could_ they?

Surely they knew how much I had to fear with Lauren on the loose. And yet, they let me roam around without a care in the world, thinking that I hadn't a care in the world when I should've had _every_ care in the world!

They would leave me here, day in, day out, unprotected when they knew what was waiting for me out there.

The worst part was - she _survived_. Lauren got away. I had broken limbs and a scar of a bite mark on my leg whilst she hid away in the darkness, planning her revenge. And what? I'm just supposed to sit here and let them do the dirty work for me? - No. But what else could I do?

Earlier this year I was scared of Lauren because I didn't know what she wanted.

Now, I'm terrified of Lauren because I know _exactly_ what she wants.

She wants me dead and if I know Lauren, then she won't go for the obvious kill. Unless that's what she expecting me to think. Maybe, maybe she _wants_ me to think that she won't go for the obvious kill so that I'm less protected, I'm less alert. It was hard to tell right now. It was hard for me to think straight and feel the fear when there was so much anger and resentment boiling inside me.

For the next two hours I lingered in the kitchen, drinking my weight in blood. Seeing as I was banned from hunting nowadays, I had to feed on donated blood - which has recently started to satisfy my needs more than animal blood. One of the worst things about Lauren was that she was so unpredictable. I didn't know when she might pop up, so I needed to be at my strongest when she was here.

Although it was gently boosting my confidence in the event of an attack, there was one thing the blood wasn't helping to sooth - the anger. In fact, I felt like it was making it worse. A part of me was anticipating my family's return, just so I could tell them that I knew and what I thought about it. Another part of me never wanted to see their faces again.

And as for Jacob... Oh, Jacob. He had a large role to play in this too. It was amazing how he managed to trick me with a poker face all these months. He managed to ask me to marry him and promise to love me, care for me and to be _true_ to me without letting anything slip. I would have been impressed if I wasn't so sick with fury.

Admittedly, it wasn't the first time he'd lied to me or kept a secret from me - but in my opinion, not telling me that in fact Lauren _wasn't _killed is pushing it way over the line.

Last night he complained to me, he actually had the nerve to complain to me about _my _stupidity and recklessness.

As I sat at the table with my tenth nearly empty blood bag and a half empty glass, my clenched fists tightened until the engagement ring started to hurt my finger.

Then I looked at it. That ring represented my future with Jacob. Right now, the ring was hurting me, same as Jacob was hurting me. The only way I could stop the ring from hurting me would be to take it off.

As I stood to bin the blood bag and retrieve my fifteenth, I heard the front door open. My first thought was that my family had returned home, but it was silent. They did not speak.

Lauren?

My heart pounded for a moment, but then I got a whiff of their scent. It was Jacob. For the first time, my heart did not skip a beat at his presence; it only pounded faster with rage.

I didn't rush to throw myself into his arms.

I didn't even move towards the living room. Instead, I grabbed another blood bag and started to pour it into the glass.

I was standing at the sink when he finally came into the kitchen.

"Hey." he greeted. I didn't respond. But he was too eager to ask me questions to notice how I didn't return his greeting.

"What's this?" he asked. I heard the faint sound of paper come from his direction and I knew exactly what he was talking about.

"A receipt from the tow truck guy." I said, blankly.

"Why?"

"Car got crushed."

"_What_?" he exclaimed. "How?"

"Vampire or random meteorite."

"Well," he sighed. "How much is it gonna cost to fix it?"

I laughed humourlessly at him and set the glass down with my hand still firmly holding it. "It can't be fixed, Jacob. It's nothing more than a large two tonne ball of metal now."

He didn't respond, but after a while I heard him screw up the paper and went to throw it in the trash. As the lid lifted, he paused.

"How much blood have you drunk today?" he asked.

"This is my fifteenth."

"_Fifteenth_?" he snapped. "Ness, why the hell are you drinking so much?"

I didn't respond. He dropped the paper in the trash and hurried over to me. When he was at my side, he tried to take the glass out if my hand but my hand was tightly wrapped around it.

"You gonna tell me what's going on?" he asked, never taking his eyes off me.

"Why should I tell _you_?" I spat.

"Whoa, what is _wrong_ with you today? Is this still about last night? Look, I'm sorry for snapping at you, but you scared me when you just ran off like that."

I didn't respond. My eyes never left the view of the forest outside the window. Jacob let out a short, exasperated sigh and came closer to me.

"Ness, for god sake _talk_ to me. Why are you being so blunt all of a sudden?" then he started to look around behind us. "Where are Seth, and Eli?"

"Gone home."

"What do you mean 'gone home'?"

"I sent them home."

"Why the hell would you do that?"

"Because this is my battle-" then I finally looked at him, nose to nose I said to him. Through gritted teeth "- not theirs."

Just then I slammed the glass into the sink and it shattered as I stormed away.

I just made it into the living room when Jacob grabbed my arm and I stumbled back against his chest.

"Okay, seriously - _what_ is this about?"

He looked at me with innocence and curiosity - it made me so angry. I pushed hard against his chest and he let me go.

"Ness, _please_-"

"So, have you found Lauren yet?" I asked, light-heartedly.

His shoulders sunk and he began to rub his forehead in frustration. "How did you-?"

"Abi told me. And y'know what? So far, she's been the most honest and true to me. But aren't you supposed to be the honest one, Jacob?"

"Ness-"

"-I trusted you. You've lied to me and kept secrets from me before but this is way over the line. How dare you stand by me for the last three months, sit with my recovering body in hospital and trap me in the darkness. I don't care how traumatised I was because it's nothing to how I feel now." I paused for a moment. "Do you remember last October? When Leah told me about how you used to be in love with my mom? Do you remember how furious I was then? Well, it's nothing to how I feel right now. This is just so- so- so _wrong_! I can't believe you kept it from me. Did you honestly think that you'd be able to deal with her discreetly? That you'd be able to stop her before she got close enough to me-?"

"Can you please just let me explain-?"

"_Explain_? Or lie? - You were never going to tell me. You never do until I find out and it's too late. You don't know what it's like to be hunted, Jacob. It is the single most terrifying thing in this world - especially when you deserve what's coming for you-"

"No." he snapped and grabbed my shoulders. "Don't _ever_ say that. You don't deserve any of this, do you understand me? You don't deserve this."

"You're right." I said. "I don't deserve this. I don't deserve to be lied to or to be kept in the dark from something that I should know everything about. I don't deserve to be put in even more danger by the ones I care about the most."

"Listen, can you please just let me explain-"

"There is nothing for you to explain that I don't already know. You didn't tell me about Lauren because of everything that I'd been thought; you thought it would be better for me to not know. You and my family were going to 'discreetly' deal with the situation and then we'd all live happily ever after. Well, wake up, Jacob. This is the_ real_ world. The princes and princesses don't always live to tell the tale. You had your chance to fix things three months ago, but some things just didn't go to plan."

I walked away from him, not daring to look in his eyes. I stopped at the couches and turned my head slightly.

"I take it when you picked up the receipt; you missed the envelope with your name on it?"

"What is it?"

"It's a gift." I said, subdued. "You'd be doing us both a favor if you just take it and get out."

"Renesmee-"

"Take it and _get out_, Jacob. Now." I kept my back to him and I heard him slowly walks over to the table where I had left the envelope for him an hour or so ago. He opened it and I could almost hear his heart shatter.

I felt my ring-less ring finger with my thumb and waited for him to leave.

The front door opened and I was expecting him to leave, but instead I heard the arrival of my family.

"Whoa." said Emmett. "Who left the oven door open? The heat is killing me."

Emmett's nonchalant behaviour only made me more furious.

"Where are Seth and Eli?" Bella asked. I didn't answer and so after a few seconds Jacob told her through clenched teeth.

"She sent them home." and then he left, slamming the front door behind him.

The room fell silent for a long while. Then Bella came over to me.

"Are you going to tell me what happened?" she asked, putting a hand on my shoulder. But I whipped my shoulder out from underneath her hand.

"Renesmee, what's wrong?"

I didn't respond.

Finally, Edward stepped in. "Renesmee, we did it for your own good-"

"No!" I snapped. "Don't you dare give me that excuse. I am sick and tired of that excuse because it's not only an excuse – it's a lie. It wasn't for my own good - you don't know what _is_ for my own good. If you did, then you'd realise that actually it's better for me to know that Lauren's alive instead of being lied to about it."

I saw Bella flinch at my mentioning of it and I turned back to her again. "And I can't believe _you_ didn't tell me. Y'know, I don't want to sound like a broken record and I'm so close to breaking point that you don't wanna know. But there are a few things that I need to say. What kind of mother doesn't tell her own daughter when she's in danger? What kind of mother hides the life depending truth from her child and let's her run free without a care I the world? What kind of mother leads her daughter to believe she has a life after her nineteenth, when in fact she may not even make it to that? - A terrible one. Y'know mom, I may not know where Lauren is right now and I don't know how much longer I have to live, but the one thing I know better than anything else right now- is that I _hate_ you."

**Hope you enjoyed it!**

**Let me know what you think! Please review!**

**and I'll try to update soon! :) x**


	10. Provoking

**Okay, here's the next chapter!**

**Enjoy!**

**Provoking**

I COULD NEVER FORGET HER FACE. THAT SECOND, THAT MOMENT OF SHOCK when I told Bella that I hated her was something that I could never forget. She would never forgive me and maybe I would never forgive her.

I lay in bed that night with her face haunting my thoughts. Everyone's faces haunting my thoughts. Although I was directing my words at her, they knew those words were for them too.

There was a constant battle in my mind -

_Was that too harsh? _

_No, of course not, they had it coming. _

_But the look on Bella's face- _

_She deserved it._

_Maybe I should go and apologise-_

_You'll do nothing, Cullen. You stay right here and do nothing. Bella's a big girl, she'll get over it._

_I'm sorry, mom._

_Shame your mom isn't the mind reader of the family. Now sleep!_

The devil and angel never made a truce and that battle seemed to carry on further into the night. And of course, they argued over Jacob too.

_He was doing it because he loves you-_

_That's bull- _

_No it isn't. Renesmee, how could you do that? How could you give him back the engagement ring?_

_Quite easily, she just took it off her finger and gave it to him._

_You love him and he loves you more than anything and you threw that back in his face._

_What does he expect?_ _He lied to her about that damn psycho vamp who is probably just outside the window._

_Maybe you should apologise-_

_And what? Give him the power? No. Listen, this dog needs to learn some new tricks - he needs to see that sometimes he needs to tell Renesmee things, regardless of how discomforting they may be. If he had been true from the start then none of this would have happened._

Stupid conscience. Not only did I feel guilty now, I was confused too. I didn't know what to feel anymore.

I sat up in my bed and looked out the window at the night sky and the limited silhouetted trees. The longer I sat there, the more I grew the urge to do something about Lauren. I wanted to talk to her, to confront her - but what were my chances of getting out of this house?

I could use my window.

They wouldn't know - and what did I care if they _did _know I'd escaped. I wouldn't go far - only a little into the forest. I would go far enough so that they couldn't hear me and so Lauren _could_ hear me.

I put a sweater and some boots on before climbing out my bedroom window. I leapt onto the closest tree and gently climbed down. The second my feet touched the ground I ran away for the house into the world of the unpredictable darkness.

I sneaked around for a while, never sure where I was going. I would have run, but the wolves were out tonight and I didn't want to get caught by them. But they were always moving, so there was no guarantee they wouldn't find me.

Finally, I could smell her. I felt her coldness as I stood in the middle of a treeless patch. Her presence crawled down my spine like thousands of spiders.

"Lauren?" I called, quietly. "I know you're here. I know you can hear me."

Silence.

"Don't be a coward - come out. I wanna talk; it would be helpful if I could see you."

Silence.

"Isn't this what you want? Me to be alone, vulnerable?" I asked. "This isn't a trap. They don't know I've left. They think I'm curled up asleep in bed. I just wanna talk to you - girl to girl, is that really too much to ask?"

Silence.

I sighed. "Fine then, I'll continue - but I hope you're listening. I know you and I never really got on very well and I completely understand why. But before you make any rash decisions, just lemme talk to you about something." my hands were trembling like crazy, but I stood my ground.

"He never loved you, Lauren. And you know who I'm talking about. I'm sorry, but I don't see why I should break it to you lightly. I hardly think stalking me and breathing down my neck deserves kindness. But surely you knew that he didn't love you. Leonardo was a really good looking guy - he could get any girl he wanted, he _did_ get any girl he wanted. And I'm sorry that you got dragged into that - I'm sure it was an accident. But you've let his lies change you from someone who was probably really nice to a complete bitch. It's not what you are that turned you to ice, it's who you are. I'll admit I didn't really help you out by killing the reason for your existence, but I set you free." I paused for a moment and watched my surroundings before I continued. "I know that you won't see it my way and I know that you hate me and no matter what I say you will hate me until the day I die." I stuffed my hands in my pockets to calm the shaking and sighed. "Look, I'm not expecting you to do anything for me, but all I ask is that you leave my family _and_ the wolves out of this. This is between you and me. It's me you want, not them. I know that by hunting you, they're not helping - but I can keep them away, you _know_ I can. And... I want you to give Tracy back. You bit her. Please, give her back - she doesn't deserve any of this-"

"-Do you think _I_ deserved it?" I heard Lauren's voice. It was a voice that I'd hoped to never hear again. She was closer than I thought, but I never saw her.

"Well? Do you think _I _deserved to be forced into eternal misery with a heart as cold as the skin in my bones? Do you think _I _deserved to be left alone for the rest of time because of some measly, pathetic, whiney little hybrid vampire? _Well_?"

"N-no." I stuttered quietly, backing away from the sound of her voice.

"No. I didn't deserve it. Your little human friend didn't deserve it but hey, life sucks. Life isn't fair-"

"Lauren, I am handing myself over to you, all I ask is that you leave my family and Tracy alone-"

"Why do you want her? She doesn't mean anything to you-"

"But she is an innocent person who you are wrongly hurting."

"I'm just impersonating you."

"_What_?"

She laughed darkly. "Isn't that what you're doing?" she asked. "You're hurting innocent people - emotionally anyway."

"What are you talking about-?"

"You think I don't know about your little dramas, Renesmee?" she asked. "I've been watching you. I've been watching you fall to pieces and you're breaking other people with you. You broke off your engagement with that dog earlier - I saw that. You used your gift against your friends - I saw that. You told your loving, selfless mother that you _hated_ her- oh yeah, I saw that too. I followed him actually, your wolf, after he left your house."

My body froze up.

"Lauren, what did you-?"

"I didn't touch a single flea on his body, don't worry. I just watched him. You hurt him real bad y'know. He's heartbroken. He didn't deserve that. The funniest part is that _he's_ the _dog_; yet, he's worth much more than you. And your parents... Your family... Well, they're devastated. They expected you to be angry, but they never expected you to feel so much hate towards them."

"Don't-"

"Don't what? Tell you the truth? Tell you the truth about how you're not as saint like as you're made out to be. Tell you the truth because you're just too damn stubborn to admit you're wrong, even to yourself. You're no saint, Renesmee. To be honest, even Satan himself can be more merciful than you."

"Lauren-"

"Oh no, I'm not done yet." her voice was suddenly closer, but I still couldn't see her. "Let's carry on, shall we? Leonardo didn't deserve to die. He deserved to be punished - of course he did, but he didn't deserve to die. You just couldn't handle the guilt, the shame, the betrayal. But I don't see why you had to go to all the effort to kill Leo just to try and prove something to your boyfriend - he would have come back to you anyway. He's a dog, they're not picky-"

"Okay, Lauren, I am sick of the dog jokes. This isn't about Jacob, or my parents or my family, or Leonardo or anyone. This is about you and me, so let's stick to the people in name-"

"Shame." she said quietly, "I was just starting to have fun-"

A loud roar sounded from behind the trees, the bushes rustled and I jumped as Lauren shrieked and the wolves descended on her. Just then an agonising throb pounded in my arm. I yelped and fell to the ground, crying and clinging to my arm. The pain spread and I felt sharp scratches hash across my stomach, my legs and my face - eventually I was screaming in agony.

Why is this happening?

_What _is happening?

After a few seconds, the scratches weren't being made anymore, but the ones already made remained, throbbing. I clung to my body and cried. My tears seeped into the cuts on my face.

"Ness?" I heard Jacob's voice and I was slightly relieved, but only slightly. He knelt down by my side.

"Jake, she's getting away!" called Embry.

"Leave her! Don't run after her!" he ordered. Then as he turned to me he grew gentle and lightly touched my burning face. I flinched.

"What the hell were you thinking?" he asked.

"What's happened to me?"

He didn't look me in the eyes, but he scanned my body and he clenched his jaw. "C'mon, I need to get you home. Now." he gently scooped me up into his arms. His hot skin burned against my wounds and I really didn't want him carrying me anyway, but I was in too much pain to argue.

As he walked with me, we didn't speak. The others finally caught up with us and only spoke to Jacob.

"Why the hell did you let her get away?" snapped Leah. "We could've got her right there."

Jacob didn't answer.

"Dammit Jacob, answer me!"

"I don't have to answer to you, Leah."

"But she's right, Jake." said Embry. "We could've had her."

"Something's wrong." he replied. "Something's really wrong - I can feel it. We can still look for Lauren. But no one is to touch her until I say otherwise."

"And what about the Cullens?"

"What about them?"

"They won't bow down to you, Jake. How exactly are you planning on getting them to agree to it?"

"By showing them what it's done to Renesmee."

"What are you talking about-?"

"Seth." he snapped.

"Right here!" I heard Seth run ahead a little so he was walking at Jacob's side.

"You said that Ness saw the forest earlier, in a vision, right?"

"Well, yeah, that's what she told me. Why?"

"I think it links. What's happened to her and what happened in that vision- There's a connection somewhere."

"Yeah. They both involve that blond bloodsucker." muttered Leah.

Jacob was silent for a long while and then he sighed. "I don't know, but we need to get her back, fast. She's bleeding heavily."

All I could remember was pain and flashes of red as Carlisle stitched me back together like some rag doll. I couldn't even remember coming back inside the house. I'd blacked out before we'd reached the forest border.

By the time I'd been stitched up, I had lost all hope of regaining consciousness. My eyes dropped shut one last time and that perfect, ghastly, everlasting darkness welcomed me.

**Hope you liked it!**

**Let me know what you think! Please review!**

**and I'll try to update soon x**


	11. Perfect, Just Perfect

**Okay, so here's the next chapter - which is in Jacob's POV by the way!**

**Enjoy!**

**Perfect, Just Perfect.**  
><strong> Jacob<strong>

SHE TURNED AWAY FROM ME AND WALKED OVER TO THE COUCHES. I should've known she would find out sooner or later and her reaction shouldn't surprise me, but word after word she seemed to get worse. She turned her head slightly over her shoulder.

"I take it when you picked up the receipt, you missed the envelope with your name on it?" she asked. I looked behind me at the glass table and the envelope was sitting there, just like she said. I hadn't noticed it before. I guess I should have considering she'd even written my name on it.

"What is it?" I asked. What was it? A letter? A photo? A note? A restraining order?

"It's a gift." She said, her voice was much quieter now. "You'd be doing us both a favor if you just take it and get out."

"Renesmee-"

"Take it and _get out_, Jacob. Now."

Everything about her then was cold - the way she stood, the way she spoke and just _everything_. My being there wasn't helping anything, but I needed her to let me explain - if she would.

Maybe this was just a thing of the moment? She'd only found out about Lauren earlier today, of course she'd still be pissed. Then I decided what I'd do, I'd open her envelope and take it in my stride, then I'd come back later once she'd calmed down. She'd cool down eventually. There was way no way she could stay mad at me forever - could she?

Anyway, I turned around and took the envelope. I couldn't actually bring myself to believe what was inside it.

Her ring.

My mother's engagement ring that had been given to her.

No.

Why?

Was she _really_ that angry?

Jesus Christ, why didn't she understand that I did it to protect her? Okay, I got it, so she felt that by not telling her we were putting her in more danger. I'd lost count of the times I'd thought that, but we wanted to deal with it without her knowing, but the problem only got worse - that was when I had to get the rest of the wolves in on it.

She just stood there. I wanted to say something, perhaps even beg her not to do this, but the rest of the Cullens arrived before I could say anything.

"Whoa." said Emmett. "Who left the oven door open? The heat is killing me."

I looked from him to Bella. She looked between me and Renesmee before her face grew concerned.

"Where's Seth and Eli?" she asked, looking in Renesmee's direction. She didn't speak and it was probably a good thing she didn't. I hated to imagine what curses, dark thoughts and hasty words were running through her head right now.

I knew I would have to answer, but it was so hard for me to talk. It took a moment or two, but I finally managed to force words out through clenched teeth.

"She sent them home." and then I left. She wasn't going to talk to me, I had to face it. She'd said what needed to be said to me, now she would tell her family what she thought. Honestly, I didn't know who she was more pissed at - me or her family?

Beyond the trees, I phased. I wasn't really sure what I was doing, or where the hell I was going - probably home. I needed to keep my mom's ring safe if it wasn't on Renesmee's finger.

I couldn't believe that all this had driven her to that. She had every right to be mad, I would be mad, but taking back her agreement to marry me - was that too far? Or maybe I was just being blind. Just because, no matter what, I wouldn't break off the engagement, doesn't mean that she would feel the same.

The second I reached my house, I noticed Charlie Swan's car outside my house. Perfect, just perfect. If I didn't have my mom's ring, I would've turned around and walked away.

On the way in, I took the back entrance, but that was a waste if time.

"Jake?" my dad called. "Is that you?"

I sighed and reached for my door. "Yeah, dad. It's... Me. Who else?"

"Well, I seem to see your sisters more than you nowadays. You got a minute?"

My head fell against the door as I let out an exasperated sigh. "Not now, dad. I really-"

But then he appeared from the cupboard of a living room.

"Hello, stranger." he gave me a weak smile. "I was beginning to wonder if I only imagined I had a son- what's wrong?"

"Can you just give me ten minutes-?" Charlie appeared at the corner.

"Hey kiddo, long time no see." he greeted. I nodded to him and looked at my dad again.

He knew by now that something was wrong. He already knew about Lauren and that she was near. Ever since we came back from Italy months go, he'd been nagging me, telling me that I should tell Ness the truth - after everything that had happened - that was the _exact _reason why I didn't tell her.

"Jacob, what's wrong?" he asked again. I still didn't want to say anything, but he would find out eventually. Just like she did.

"She found out." I said, bluntly. A lump was growing in my throat as I tried to look anywhere but at them.

After a long pause, he sighed and rubbed his brow. "I told you she would. You underestimate that girl's intelligence and her craftiness." he paused for a moment. "What did she say?"

I felt so pathetic right now, whining to my dad about how my girlfriend had broken up with me. But him finding out about it was enviable and so was him trying to talk to me about it. I didn't say anything, I just took the ring out of my pocket and showed him - no other words were needed.

"Oh." he said, his eyes never leaving the ring.

"Okay then, I'm just gonna... leave you two alone." said Charlie, awkwardly scratching his gray hair and going back to the living room.

My dad sighed and held my arm. "Jake, I'm sorry-"

"Should I have expected that?" I sighed. "I mean, I knew she would be mad - why shouldn't she be? I _lied_ to her. But is this right?"

"Well..."

"_Well_? Dad, you told me that she would be angry - even I knew that. But you never said anything about her breaking up with me-"

"Should I need to tell you something like that? She's _your _girlfriend, Jake. Surely you would've had a better idea of how she would react."

"That doesn't make me feel any better."

"It's not meant to. Just give her time, son. I'm sure when this is over, you two can sort out like adults-"

"Oh c'mon, you and I both know it's not going to be that easy." I snapped. "I _need _her, dad-

"And she needs you too, that's why I'm saying, give it time." he reached up and took the ring out of my hand. "I'll keep this safe. When you think the time is right, you come to me and you can try again. But the time _really _has to be right, Jacob."

"The time _was_ right." I insisted.

"Let me put it this way - when you can ask her to marry you with a clear conscience and know that there are no secrets you're keeping that could endanger her life - _that'll _be when the time is right." and then he wheeled away to rejoin Charlie.

I stood there for a moment. In a way he was right, when I first asked Ness to marry me, Lauren had honestly been the last thing on my mind. A few months ago, I had been so close to losing her that things like marriage had suddenly become a must do. Now everything was falling to pieces again.

I needed to be away from here. I needed to get my thoughts together, where I couldn't hear anyone's thoughts but my own.

I didn't go far. I stayed on the reservation, but I didn't phase - which given the circumstances, might have been a pretty dumb thing to do. But it was nice, just sitting on my own, not worrying about my thoughts being heard and hearing the thoughts of others.

But I hadn't been alone for long when I could smell someone else. But it wasn't just someone else, it was a vampire.

It was the very faint scent of strawberries that kept me sitting on the ground.

"You been kicked out too?" I asked Bella as she joined me from behind.

"Nope, just needed to get out of the house." she insisted. "Plus, Edward heard what happened."

I snorted. "Should I be surprised?"

She sighed. "Don't let it get to you, Jake. She's upset, we knew she would be."

"I didn't realise she'd take it that badly."

"I know."

I looked at her and she just stared out at the sea, never looking at me.

"I'm guessing she's already unleashed her wrath on you?"

Bella sighed and looked as if she would cry, if she could. "Whoa, Bells what did she say?" she sat down next to me and leant against my arm.

After letting out one last sigh she said. "She told me that she hates me."

I did not see that coming. "Are you _serious_?"

She nodded. "So, here we are. You're single and I've been declared the world's worst mother-"

"She didn't say that too!"

"No, but she was implying it. And she's right-"

"You're not the world's worst mother, Bella."

She smiled weakly, "You're supposed to say that."

"Says who?"

"As my best friend, it is you're duty." she grinned. "And as your future mother-in-law, it's essential that you convince me you're worthy of my daughter."

I grinned. "I didn't know you read 'In-laws guide for dummies'"

She punched me in the arm. "You've got a nerve, Black. A lot of nerve."

"Yeah..." I chuckled and trailed into silence. We quickly turned serious.

"So, how is she?" I asked.

"Angry." she said, bluntly. "I don't know what to do, Jake. Saying 'sorry' just doesn't seem good enough."

"How do you think a bouquet of roses, a new car and a puppy will go down?" I asked with a hint of a smirk.

"I'm not going to try to buy her forgiveness. But- why does she need a new car?"

I sighed, "Lauren decided to pay Ness a visit and she busted her car - completely."

"_What_?" she snapped. "What did she-? How?"

"She just... Destroyed it, into a, quote, "_large two tonne ball of metal.""_

Bella sunk her head into her hands_._ "She never said anything... Probably because she was too busy telling me how much she hated me. She must have been so frightened."

"No wonder she's pissed." I muttered. Bella took my hand then.

"Geez." I winched at her coldness.

"Sorry," she sniggered. "I'm just...scared."

"Why?"

She sighed. "What if she gets her, Jake? What if there's just one time when we're not quick enough-?"

"Hey, hey, hey - don't talk like that, okay? Don't _ever _talk like that. Lauren is never going to harm her. I will die before I let her hurt Renesmee again."

She smiled painfully and put her head on my shoulder. "I know I haven't always felt it, Jake. But I'm really glad that, out of every person on this earth, Renesmee has you. It's like you're...perfect for her. No one could want to keep her safer and it's just...nice."

"I'm glad you approve. But I mean it, Bella; I won't let anything happen to her."

She sighed, "I know you won't."

_I can smell her, _thought Leah.

_Me too - Jake, she's close to the Cullens' house, too close, _Embry said from somewhere.

_Don't you think I know that? C'mon!_

Compared to the others, I was closest to the Cullens' home. It was night, which was her most predictable time to hunt, but it also made it harder to keep quiet and go unnoticed by Lauren.

Then I could see her. I could see the back of her head where her long, platinum blond hair hung down like freakin' Rapunzel. She was just standing there, not moving, but she was talking.

"...But I don't see why you had to go to all the effort to kill Leo just to try and prove something to your boyfriend - he would have come back to you anyway. He's a dog, they're not picky-"

When I heard Ness's voice, my stomach plummeted. "Okay, Lauren, I am sick of the dog jokes. This isn't about Jacob, or my parents or my family, or Leonardo or anyone. This is about you and me, so let's stick to the people in name-"

"Shame." she said quietly. I couldn't take just standing here anymore; I needed to get her before she turned on Renesmee. "I was just starting to have fun-"

Embry lunged before me and pinned Lauren to the floor, Seth and Leah follow and I saw the wolves pile on top of her. I checked on Renesmee and she was on the floor, screaming and squirming.

What was wrong with her?

Lauren hadn't attacked her - I'd stood her and watched her and she hadn't even made a moved on Renesmee. Then I looked back at the wolves. Through the gaps is saw the attacking a body that was once Lauren's but was now Renesmee's. The three of them knew about Lauren's gift and didn't let her shift in form distract them from their hunt.

Without thinking I ran over to them and..._Defended _her. I fought the pack off so she could run away. The second they were at a distance, I left them for Renesmee. She wasn't screaming anymore, but she was on the ground, trembling, bleeding with deep cuts and scratches all over her body.

"Ness?" I had phased back and knelt down by her side. She was covered in blood, and the worst part was that Lauren hadn't even touched her.

"Jake, she's getting away!" called Embry.

"Leave her! Don't run after her!" I ordered. I turned back to her and gently helped her fragile body.

She flinched when I touched her. "What the hell were you thinking?"

"What's happened to me?" she asked, quietly.

I wanted to look her in the eyes, but her body was covered in so much blood that it was hard to look anywhere else. "C'mon, I need to get you home. Now." I gently scooped her up into my arms and began to walk back in the direction of her house.

We walked in silence. Even though she was weak and bloody, there was some satisfaction burning inside me whilst holding her in my arms.

But I couldn't hold that satisfaction for long - everything that had just happened to her was too hard to absorb.

The others finally caught up with us.

"Why the hell did you let her get away?" snapped Leah. "We could've got her right there."

I didn't answer.

"Dammit Jacob, answer me!"

"I don't have to answer to you, Leah."

"But she's right, Jake." said Embry. "We could've had her."

"Something's wrong." I sighed. "Something's really wrong - I can feel it. We can still look for Lauren. But no one is to touch her until I say otherwise."

"And what about the Cullens?"

"What about them?"

"They won't bow down to you, Jake. How exactly are you planning on getting them to agree to it?"

"By showing them what it's done to Renesmee."

"What are you talking about-?"

"Seth." I snapped.

"Right here!" Like some kind of puppy, he ran slightly ahead of us and was nearly walking at my side.

"You said that Ness saw the forest earlier, in a vision, right?"

"Well, yeah, that's what she told me. Why?"

"I think it links. What's happened to her and what happened in that vision. There's a connection somewhere."

"Yeah. They both involve that blond bloodsucker." muttered Leah.

I was silent for a while and then he sighed. "I don't know, but we need to get her back, fast. She's bleeding heavily."

Carlisle took her the second we walked through the door.

"What happened?" Bella was the first in the living room, shortly followed by Edward. "Why was she outside?"

Then she shot me a look. I held my hands up. "Bella, you know as well as I do that she hates me right now - like she's going to come out if I tell her to."

"Then what was she doing out?"

"She wanted to confront Lauren." said Edward.

I rolled my eyes and leant against the back of one of the couches. "Why must she always-?"

"She was offering herself over to Lauren, on the condition that none of us were harmed."

"And look what happened-" said Bella. "-As predicted, she got hurt-"

"I don't think it was Lauren that did that to her." I told her.

She looked at me funny. I couldn't exactly explain what I thought was going on, but I knew it was weird.

"It's a part of her gift." said Edward, enlightened. "It has to be." then he looked at me. "When the wolves attacked Lauren, she was in Renesmee's form-"

"-So... Whatever happens to Lauren when she's in the form of another-?"

"-Is reflected in the original form."

We're screwed. How could we win? She could phase into anyone, not just Renesmee. So, if she were to be in Renesmee's form and _die_ in that form...then... Ness would die too.

**Hope you enjoyed it!**

**Let me know what you think! Please review!**

**And I'll try to update soon! :) x**


	12. Special Guest

**Sorry for the delay! Here's the next chapter!**

**This chapter is back in Renesmee's POV again. Hope you enjoyed Jacob's little chapter - I might try to give him another chapter, depending on how things go. Unless you all hated it - in which case let me know before I go ahead and do it!**

**Anyway, enjoy!**

**Special Guest**  
><strong>Renesmee<strong>

IT HAD BEEN A WEEK SINCE MY ENCOUNTER WITH LAUREN IN THE FOREST. Now, it was time for me to stand and sit in Carlisle's office whilst he removed one hundred and eighty three stitches from my black and blue body.

I woke up nearly twenty four hours after I passed out. Jacob said how he wasn't surprised considering how little sleep I'd had, and I didn't respond to him. My family told me without being asked what they thought was going on. Apparently, they have a theory that whatever happens to Lauren's body if she's in the form of me, will happen to the real me. I made some snide comment afterwards about their change in being honest with me, but that was it. Sooner or later, one of them would snap at me for being mean or rude - and I wanted them to. I wanted to argue my fire out; I didn't want to lecture it out like I'd done the day I was attacked.

Something I noticed after I woke up was how different they were when they were in the same room as me - all of them. And it wasn't just me looking at them different, they were behaving strangely, but not in a suspicious way.

Bella stood out the most. Maybe she was sick with herself. Maybe she hated how much she cared about me when she knew damn well that the feeling was anything but mutual. I could tell she felt slightly awkward being around me, but I, being her daughter, automatically received her full attention when I was in trouble - not that I deserved her attention.

I couldn't walk on my own and I couldn't even walk at a normal pace. The cuts on my legs made every move full of pinches and pain. When I first had the switches taken out, my skin was burning. Bella and Edward tried to help me, but I refused to let them touch me.

Eventually, I had to let _someone _help me. So, Carlisle and Esme held up my underarms so I could gently walk through to the living room. Their cold skin was actually quite refreshing.

"It will take a while for you to move around on your own." said Carlisle as they slowly lowered me to the couch. "I suppose we won't need to worry about you getting out and running around your own."

I laughed humourlessly and stared at my scarred hands. "I don't need to be in Lauren's presence to be killed anymore. All I need is for you or the wolves to make the small mistake of removing her head whilst she's suddenly in my form and-" I drew a line across my neck with my finger.

"We won't let that happen." said Edward. "We know now what we're up against."

"You're up against a psycho who wants revenge for her deceased, back-stabbing, lying lover. We already knew that."

"You know what I mean." he said, trying not to grin. I sighed and rubbed my hands around my eyes in circles.

"They wouldn't have anything to do with this." Edward said out of the blue. I looked at him and he was looking at Jasper.

"We don't know that-"

"But why would they?"

"Edward, you know as well as I do how persistent the Volturi can be. Who knows-?"

"Wait, what?" I asked, they suddenly had all my attention. "The Volturi don't have anything to do with this - they sent me a letter and flowers and apologised-"

"Anyone could do that, Renesmee." Jasper insisted.

"I'll have to watch out for Aro then." said Alice, resting on the corner of the couch.

"Watch out for Lauren too." Edward told her

"I _try_."

"You _try_?" he repeated. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that I struggle to see her a lot of the time. I can't see her when she's shifted into someone else. I only see the future of that person. If I watch Lauren all I'd be seeing is Renesmee or whoever."

"Damn, she's good." I mumbled.

"Don't give her the satisfaction, Renesmee." my father warned. "She already thinks she's powerful, if we give her the idea that she's any more powerful, she'll destroy us."

I snorted. "So much for giving her the illusion that she's weak, dad."

After that remark, I think they were just set on ignoring me. I knew that I wasn't helping out the situation, and in some ways I was glad. I knew I should have been trying to think of ways out of this, but there was a side, a deep, dark side of me that was getting some sick satisfaction from watching them panic over how close or far, strong or weak Lauren was.

Although it was causing me a lot of pain, I _liked_ the fact that I was badly wounded - I hoped it made them feel bad. I hoped they felt guilty for not telling me _and_ for letting her get away in the first place.

There was still that flicker of resentment in me, and in some ways it scared me. I felt like Lauren. She hated me for killing her lover; I hated my family for lying to me - so much hate in just two people.

"But there is a chance-" said Carlisle, resting on the couch. "-there is a chance Aro could know how to deal with her."

"How?" asked Bella. "She's too strong, she's reckless."

"That may be true, but let's not forget that Lauren was 'brought up' by the Volturi. There is always the chance that they know her weaknesses, they might know how to trap her-"

"I'll come with you." Edward interrupted.

"Edward, what about Renesmee?"

"We'll be here." said Esme. "We'll keep her safe. You're right, there may be a chance that the Volturi know something, and it's a chance that we have to take."

Edward looked back at Carlisle for confirmation.

Carlisle sighed and looked behind him at Jacob. "Jacob, is there any chance that Sam could help? I know it's a lot to ask when he has Toby to take care of too. Just assure him that it's only temporary."

"Sure-"

"Jacob, wait-" the words fell from my mouth and I held myself back for a couple of moments. He seemed slightly shocked that I was talking to him and slightly relieved too. Afters few seconds, I carried on. "Can't you ask Sam tomorrow? It's dark now and its Lauren's prime hunting time too. Can't it wait-?"

"No, because we're leaving now." said Edward, standing from the couch with Carlisle.

"_Now_? But-"

"Renesmee, we don't have time to waste. We need to speak to Aro _now_, before things get worse. Jacob-"

He nodded. "Sam - got it." and he jumped up from the stairs.

As Edward and Carlisle headed for the door, Jacob followed and the verbal vomit was back.

"Jake, please-" I begged him. "Just stay, you can deal with it tomorrow-"

"Ness, c'mon. You heard your dad - we don't have time to waste." it almost sickened me that he was quoting my father. "Why are you so desperate for me to stay?"

"I _told_ you - Lauren's out there."

"So?"

"Jacob, with Carlisle away - what happens if you get hurt? We can't take you to a normal hospital with normal doctors who are only used to normal patients-"

"I heal fast. Don't worry, I'll be fine-"

"But what if you're _not _fine?" I snapped. "Not every injury you get will be just a cut or a graze, Jacob. Remember what happened last time? Remember the night she attacked you and ripped your stomach open? Jacob, without medical assistance - you would have _died_. It was the fast healing that had the scars gone by the next morning. It was Carlisle who kept you alive."

Now I was desperate for him to stay with me. I had so many thoughts and emotions towards him right now that I didn't know which ones were more important. But I was sure above all things that if Lauren were to take _true _revenge on me, then it would involve Jacob getting hurt if not killed somewhere along the lines.

"Renesmee-" he said, looking at me with complete sincerity. "I _know _what I'm doing. The only person in this room, who truly doesn't know what they're dealing with, is you."

My jaw dropped slightly and the three of them said their goodbyes and left.

I stayed in the living room all night, even when I was told by nearly everyone to go to bed. I refused to move. I never left the room and just continuously watched the forest outside with my cell phone balanced on my knees.

By morning, I was back to my usual walking dead self. The rings under my eyes had returned and I felt weaker than ever. Esme brought me glass after glass of blood to try and keep the life in me. She sat on the other end of the couch with my feet gently touching her leg. I suppose, out of my entire family, I resented Esme the least. I could talk to her quite normally without my conscience snapping at me for going against my motives.

"He hasn't called." I said quietly, my eyes set on my silent cell. Esme stroked my leg for a moment and took the phone away.

"Sweetheart, you need to sleep. I know you're scared, but Jacob will be _fine-"_

"Then why hasn't he called me?"

"Because he thinks you don't want him to. You've been pretty harsh to him over the last week, Renesmee. You've been harsh to all of us too, but, I suppose we deserve it. But all this isn't Jacob's fault."

I didn't respond.

She sighed. "Do you want to know what I think?"

"You think I'm the worst granddaughter in the world and that you shouldn't be wasting your time trying to protect me?"

She smiled. "I would _never_ think that. And you're not the worst granddaughter in the world. I can understand why you're doing what you're doing - we were wrong for not saying anything to you, but it would be nice if you could try to look at it from our perspective. We didn't want you to be scared, or to live in fear. We were hoping to deal with the situation discreetly and it would never become a problem because you wouldn't know that she was still alive-"

"I know, I got that part. I just wish you'd still told me."

"I know, sweetheart - and we're all so, so sorry. And I think you should go easy on your parents too, especially your mother. I know you're upset and was angry at the time, but what you said to her really upset her."

"I know. I just need her to see-"

"- that you were upset. Don't worry, she definitely saw that, we all did." we went silent for a moment and then she put her hand on my knee. "But I think you need to think more about what you're doing. Jacob is being _hugely _patient with you and I don't think it's because he has to. He loves you, Renesmee. He loves you so much and he's hoping that you'll change your mind."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, he's hoping that you'll reconsider calling off the engagement. He's hoping that you'll forgive him and that you will love him again."

"I still love him." I insisted, "I'm just so angry with him, I don't like letting my guard down."

"You mean like you did last night?" she said raising an eyebrow. "You were desperate for him to stay so that you knew he was safe. When the thought of him being in danger appears all resentment just goes out the window." she smiled sweetly at me. "Forgive and let live, Renesmee Cullen. You could learn a lot from that."

Just then, my cell phone started to ring on the arm of the couch next to Esme.

"Jacob?" I asked as she lifted the phone.

"No. Claire."

"_Claire_?" I asked. "Why is she calling me?"

"Probably to make sure you haven't done anything reckless to get yourself killed. Well, at least you haven't done the second part." she grinned and handed me the phone.

"Hello?" I answered it as Esme got up and left me in peace.

"Hey, you!" she sounded unusually happy. It made me smile a little.

"Hello, Mrs Ateara. How is honeymooning going?" I leant back against the large pillow behind me and relaxed a little.

"It's amazing, trust me - you need to go to Egypt at some point."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"So... How's home?"

I hesitated, should I tell her the truth? Or would the truth ruin her honeymoon?

"Renesmee," she said, quietly. "What's happened?"

"What makes you think anything has happened?"

"Because you hesitated." damn it. "C'mon, what's happened?"

"Claire, I don't want to ruin your honeymoon-"

"Will you just tell me, please?"

I sighed. "Abi had her birthday party."

"Okay, how did that go?"

"Fine, until her cousin was taken and bitten by a vampire."

"_What_?" she exclaimed. "Who? How? Why?"

"Does the name 'Lauren' ring a bell?"

"Yes. The one who was hanging around earlier this year, right?"

"That's the one."

"What about her?"

"She's alive."

"_What_?"

"My family didn't kill her in Italy, they just told me they did. But it was a lie."

"Oh God, Renesmee, I'm so sorry. What did you say to them? Did Jacob know she was still alive?"

"Oh yeah, he knew. I told Bella that I hated her, but it was aimed at all my family."

"And what about Jacob?"

Silence.

"Renesmee?"

Silence.

"What did you say to Jacob?"

My eyes started to water and I sniffed. "I'm not marrying him anymore."

"Oh my g-" and I started to cry.

It was then I realised that this was the first time I'd ever cried over breaking up the engagement. All I'd ever felt was anger and resentment, never sadness or regret. But there was just something about admitting it that brought pain too.

"Renesmee-" but she couldn't even think of the words to say.

"I'm such a terrible person, Claire." I sobbed, "But I can't bring myself to apologise or take back anything I've done."

"You're stubborn like that." she said. "Listen, I know there are a lot of things on your plate right now and you're scared of Lauren, but you can't afford to push away the ones who care about you the most. Jacob and your family are the strongest people I know, especially when it comes to protecting you. Don't make stupid decisions, Renesmee." then she sighed, "Speaking of stupid decisions, what conditions are you in right now?"

I grinned. "Had one hundred and eighty three stitches removed from my body yesterday, head to toe."

"Yikes. Why do I even bother hoping that you won't get yourself killed?"

"Because you're the only person left who has an inch of faith in me." I assured her. As Claire continued the conversation, my hearing drowned out when I saw movement from the forest.

Jacob, I thought.

"Claire, I'm gonna have to call you back." I told her and hung up.

But it wasn't Jacob.

It was Tracy.

**Hope you enjoyed it!**

**Please review and let me know what you think!**

**And I'll try to update soon! :) x**


	13. Guilt

**Here's the next chapter**

**WARNING: If any of you are faint hearted or feel very strongly about the characters can I suggest that you stop reading at: "_But even in my subconscious mind, I wasn't all that safe_." and continue at "_With a jolt, I was lying down,_" or just read it at your own risk!**

**Enjoy!**

**Guilt**

I REACHED FOR THE DOOR BEFORE TRACY COULD TOUCH IT AND I OPENED IT.

"Tracy-?"

"I need you to help me." she looked panicked, her eyes a deep red and deadly beautiful. "Please." she added. "Don't let her get me."

Honestly, I had never seen a vampire so panicked before and I had seen a lot of situations where a vampire should panic.

Absentmindedly, I stood aside, letting her through. I probably should have thought this through better before letting a newborn vampire into our house. But there was something about the fear in her voice that made me cave in.

"Thank you." she said and swept past me. "I'm sorry this is so unexpected but-"

"No, don't worry about it. Everyone's been looking for you actually. You sort of went missing."

"I know... I don't really know what happened."

"You were attacked by a vampire-"

"Well, duh? I know _that_." she spat, and then she held her tongue. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap, I just-"

"It's alright; I guess you're going through a rough time right now - just... Sit down for a second." I gently touched her back and as she moved I could smell the blood on her. The clothes she wore underneath were covered in blood, her blood. "I'm just going to get someone for-"

"No!" she snapped. She jumped as she and reached forward to grab my arm. "Don't leave me, please, stay."

I looked at her suspiciously, was this normal? Was it normal for a newborn to be so clingy, and why me?

"Er... Okay." I sat, trying to remove her icy hands from my bare arm. "Esme! We've got company!" Esme was the first person I could think to call.

She was at the top of the stairs in a fraction of a second.

"Oh, you must be Tracy." she said.

"Tracy, this is my grandmother, Esme."

Esme came to stand behind her and Tracy smiled weakly at her.

"It's tragic what happened to you, Tracy. Truly. You were taken as an act of revenge."

"Or as an act of dinner." I grinned. Esme gave me an unimpressed look and Tracy looked on the verge of tears. Geez, it was rare for me to crack a joke nowadays, and when I did, not a soul giggled.

I wasn't really worried about Tracy crying, purely because I knew that she couldn't. But upsetting her was the last thing I should have been doing right now. Just because I was upset, didn't mean that she need to be any more upset.

"How are you feeling, Tracy?" asked Esme, perching herself next to her on the couch.

"I don't know." she said quietly. "I don't know how to feel."

"Renesmee, go and tell your mom that we've found Tracy." ordered Esme.

"What?" I gasped. "No. Why don't you go and tell her?"

"Renesmee, please don't argue with me. Just go and fetch your mother."

"But-" then she looked at me with a look that no words could describe, other than controlling. Esme was someone who you didn't want to argue with for long. I argued with her once when I was ten- big mistake. There's just something about her, it doesn't take long for you to start feeling sick with guilt for disobeying her. I never even felt that kind of guilt with my own mother - ever.

"Where is she?" I mumbled.

"In the piano room." she told me. I looked at her funny.

"Why? Mom doesn't play the piano."

Esme sighed. "Your mother doesn't take so kindly to your father making sudden absences. You should understand that, Renesmee."

Great, and there's the guilty conscience, beating and screaming at me. I was fighting the urge to sympathise for Bella. I mean, _come on_, this was nothing compared to how long Jacob left me for. Unless my dad and Carlisle were planning on taking a fifteen year visit to Italy, our circumstances were hardly relatable.

But I finally sighed. "_Fine_. I'll go and get her. But I'm only getting her to come down - I'm not having a heart to heart with her-"

"Renesmee, please, you're acting colder than my skin. She's your mother; she would never do anything to deliberately hurt you. You _know _that. She loves you and she was always there for you when Jacob wasn't. She held you through the many nights that you cried your heart out. She took every foul mood you were ever in, in her stride and _this _is how you repay her? By holding a grudge against her for telling you one lie? You punished her enough when Leah told you about her past with Jacob, and now this."

Bam! Even more guilt. And she continued.

"I tried to get you to understand, Renesmee. I tried to have a light hearted talk with you and I tried to convince you to forgive and let live." then she paused for a moment. "And I stupidly believed that maybe, just maybe, I had changed your mind. But you are very stubborn, I should have remembered that. You won't forgive anyone until you want to forgive them. Unless they're Jacob, he can convince into forgive him in ways that no one else can. It's a shame really." then she let out a long sigh. "You weren't raised to be cold hearted. I'm very disappointed in you, Renesmee Cullen." and then she turned away from me.

I wanted to say something... But I couldn't. No words left my mouth; none even came to my head. I felt my heart sink as I turned away from my disappointed grandmother and went up the stairs.

The door to the piano room was open ajar. I poked my head round the door and Bella was sat at the piano, her back to the door.

"I'm coming, don't worry." she said quietly. "I won't force you to be nice to me. According to you, I don't even deserve for you to talk to me." she rose from the piano stool then gracefully and slowly walked in my direction, never meeting my gaze.

There was a look of pure misery on her face, a kind of misery that I had never seen before. Then again, I had never seen her without Edward before. Although she knew he would come back, I think there was a certain anxiety that filled her when she knew he would be with the Volturi - and I didn't blame her for that.

I sighed and stepped into the room, shutting the door behind me.

"Mom, listen-"

"Renesmee, you're upset and angry with me and I completely understand why. If you're going to apologise, then I'd rather you waited until you were ready rather than let Esme guilt you into it. An apology is nothing until its meant, Renesmee. Now, if you don't mind-"

"-No actually, I do." I said, stepping in front of the door. "Mom, Esme's right. I shouldn't be like this - I mean, I _should, _but only for a while."

I didn't know where else to take it. There was a huge part of me that was telling myself to stop right there, that was the part that still held a grudge and probably would for a long time. But then there was that small part of me that was telling me to forgive her. "I'm sorry I told you that I hated you. I was really angry and scared and it just slipped out."

I was sorry for hating her and for telling her that I hated her, but I wasn't sorry for being angry at her and for _still _being angry.

"You're still mad at me, aren't you?" she asked.

"Do you honestly expect me to forgive you, just like that?"

"You _should_ be angry. Like I said, I won't force you to apologise." and she stepped past me, opened the door and left.

I was left standing awkwardly in the piano room after that. Down the hall, I heard Bella and Esme talking about Tracy, but I didn't trouble myself into finding out more. Instead, I walked over and sat at the piano. My fingers ran down a few odd keys before I finally worked my way into a comprehensible song.

Some songs and lullabies felt strange to play without Edward here, but I tried to carry on. Eventually, I had become so lost in it all that I hadn't even noticed that Jacob had been standing in the doorway watching me.

The piano roared as my fingers jumped when I saw him. "Jesus- you scared me."

"Sorry." he said, finally coming in.

"How long have you been standing there?"

"About ten minutes. How long have you been in here?"

"Eternity." I mumbled and let my hands fall from the keys into my lap. Jacob came over and sat on the stool with me.

"I would attempt to woo you with a song, but, with my piano playing, you'd probably run ten miles just to drown out the noise."

There was a small smile that fluttered onto my face, but I got rid of it before he could see.

"Did you tell Sam?" I asked.

"Yeah, him and his pack are gonna start later. Forest'll be crowded tonight."

I didn't say anything.

"So, Abi's cousin returns." he stated, turning to me. "She seems... Nice."

"She's weird."

"Everyone's weird to you. There's always something wrong with someone."

Again, I didn't respond. I let out a long sigh and started to play a quiet lullaby.

"Ness, can you _please_ talk to me?"

"I just did."

"A few word answers don't count."

"I'm sorry I didn't write a speech for you."

"How many times do I have to tell you I'm sorry? - And the ring-"

"_The ring _shouldn't surprise you, Jacob. You sat there and asked me to marry you, fully aware that I was oblivious to how much danger I was in. If you truly loved me, you would have told me the truth, regardless of how difficult the truth may have been." I shut the lid and was about to stand but he pulled me down again.

"Every time a conversation gets difficult, you can't keep walking out of it or throwing engagement rings back in people's faces." I looked at him, shocked.

"I don't-"

"Yes, you do. Listen to me-"

"Jacob, stop-" he grabbed my shoulders.

"Renesmee, _listen _to me. You have every right to be mad, but you can keep punishing us like this. Let's face it, you're making yourself more miserable by trying to make us miserable."

"No, actually, I find it somewhat satisfying. Now, let me go-"

"-No, I'm not letting you go. Geez, it's not as if we didn't tell you and we're not doing anything about it. We're working day and night to keep you safe and trying to deal with it-"

"Then why is Lauren still alive? You've been going at this for months, Jacob, how come she's still out there?"

"Because she's crafty. There's nothing craftier than a vampire who wants revenge."

I didn't respond. "That's right. You hate this don't you?" he continued. "You know you've argued your point as much as you can and you know that from now on you'd be wrongly hating me."

"_Please_," was all I could say.

After a long silence, I shook him off and his hands fell.

"I don't hate you, Jacob." I told him. "I _love _you, no matter how much you screw up. I will always love you. I'm just really pissed off with you."

Then I stood and left him in that room, alone.

That night I stood in a hot shower. I didn't move. I just stood there, letting the water run its course down my body until it found its way to the plug hole.

I couldn't stop thinking about earlier with Jacob. At least I'd cleared up that I didn't hate him. I didn't want Jacob to think that I hated him.

But I was sure that he still did.

I stood in that shower for an hour, lost in thought. When I was finally bored, I turned off the shower.

When I pulled back the showers curtain, I wasn't alone.

I came face to face with myself, standing before me, with bright red eyes.

I flew back and smacked my head on the wall, the shower curtain fell again and when I pulled it back, I was alone again.

"W-what?" I said to myself, quietly. I stretched one shaking hand out to grab a towel and quickly wrapped it round me.

I watched my shaking body in the mirror.

She was here.

She was just in this house.

And nobody but me had seen her.

That night I slept with a light on and my music playing softly in the background. Before I went to bed I locked every window and for the first time in years - I drew my curtains. After spending an hour checking every corner of my room for an intruder, I finally slept.

But even in my subconscious mind, I wasn't all that safe.

When I woke, I was in the living room, lying on one of the couches. The room was different somehow. Everywhere was so dark yet it was like the room was lit by moon rays. Outside, there were no trees, no forests, not even a road. Only mist. Thick, black mist.

I stood from the couch and my heart started to pound, low and so strong that it was hurting me.

"Mom?" I called and my voice echoed as if I were in a large hall. "_Mom_?" I called again, a little more forceful this time. But there was never a reply.

I stumbled towards the stairs, hoping to find someone up there.

"Esme?" I called when I was half way up, but again, nothing came.

At the top of the stairs I came face to face with the door to my art studio. I couldn't understand why, but something was urging me to go in. I looked down either end of the corridor to find both ends obscured by more black mist. A shiver rattled down my spine and I opened the door to the art studio.

Everything in there seemed normal. There was a blank canvas on an easel in the corner of the room, which was something I probably did at some point. As I neared it, I noticed a door next to it that I could have sworn had never been there before. The door was open ajar and as I neared it something hit me in the stomach. A force that tried to repel me and when I could to smell the stench of burning and rotting flesh, I wanted to turn around - but I carried on. A purple glow reflected off the glossy surface of the door as I pushed it open.

I opened it only a crack to find a heavily bleeding and long dead Abi slouched against the door frame on the other side.

Oh God. Her eyes were milky and drooped open with a gaping hole in her neck. I started to gag, but pushed the door open further to see what else was in there.

That room held a lot of bodies, all of them, I recognised. The second body I saw was Seth's. The lower half of his left leg was missing and a huge chunk had been taken out of his side.

Then I saw Eli, his body was twisted and mangled next to a window.

As I scanned the room, I saw them all. Sam's body and Emily's were together. But the others were just scattered around. Leah was piled up in one corner. Quil's in another. Embry's body wasn't too far from Abi.

As I was about to run away, I noticed something on the wall in the other side of the room. A message written in... _Blood._

_"I'm going to find you and I'm going to get you." _it read.

My stomach flipped and I staggered out of the room. As I stumbled backwards into the art studio, I heard a sudden intake of air and the sound of something gurgling. It came from the direction of the easel. I turned and nearly collapsed.

Claire's head had been impaled on the back stand of the easel. The blood that trickled from her mouth had been used to write another message on the canvas.

"_I've found you, now I'm going to get you._"

"Renesmee-" the dying Claire took her final breath. "_run_."

And I did. But I didn't know where to run. Outside there was only black mist to cover up the nowhere. As I took a left turn, it didn't take long for me to collapse to the ground in shock of something else.

On the wall were eight sets of metal platforms. The first one I saw was Rosalie. Her head had been separated from her upper body by a thick metal shelf. Then her upper half and lower half again separated by another metal shelf then she stood on a platform. She was neatly preserved; even now she was officially dead and still stunningly beautiful.

And she wasn't the only one. Lined up perfectly, next to each other was then Emmett, Alice, Jasper, Esme, Carlisle and... And... Bella and Edward.

"No! Please God no!"

With vomit churning in my stomach, I took Edward's parts off the shelves. They fell on the floor and I immediately I fell too, just to try to recover them. Like a jigsaw I put the pieces together bit by bit.

"Come on, reattach! " I yelled at the pieces. But they wouldn't.

"Please! Daddy _please_! Live! Reattach! Come on." I tried pushing them together again and again, but they wouldn't go.

At a final attempt to reattach them, the parts disappeared from beneath my hands and were back on the shelves again. I screamed and cried for my dead family. I threw myself against the closet door and cried my heart out. They were dead. My parents, my grandparents, my aunts and uncles were dead.

"No," I whimpered again and again.

What kind of sick Hell _was_ this?

I wasn't even sure if nightmare could cover this. But it got worse.

The door I was leant against was my bedroom. That was all I wanted. I just wanted to crawl into bed and wake up from this hellish dream. And that was what I would do.

As I stumbled into the room, I found that my bed was already occupied.

Jacob was in my bed, but he looked as if he was just sleeping.

"Jake?" I whispered as I shut the door behind me. "Jacob, can you hear me?"

He didn't respond. I crept over to the bed and gently nudged him.

"Jacob." and I nudged him again, a little harder this time. As I looked around in a panic, I saw another message above my bed,

"_Gotcha!_"

"Let sleeping dogs lie, Renesmee Cullen." said a voice. A voice that sounded a lot like my own.

As I looked up from Jacob, I saw myself standing next to the window. I flinched back when I saw the red in her eyes.

Lauren.

"No." I whimpered. "Lauren, please. Don't hurt him."

I reached for Jacob's body, but the bed started to stretch away from me. I stopped moving, knowing that I would only push him further away.

She leant across him and lightly traced his face, neck and chest.

"You see, Renesmee. You don't understand just how similar you and I are." she said with a pleasing tone. "We can both be gentle," her light touches circled around the skin above his heart. "But we both know where it hurts the most." she punched her fist into his chest and I let out an ear ripping scream as she drew her fist back with his heart in her hand.

"No!" I cried as my legs buckled and I fell to the floor.

She held it up with a satisfied grin.

Then, without warning she tossed it in my direction. It fell effortlessly into my hands.

"Why don't you play with the real thing instead of playing around it." she grinned and then she disappeared.

I scrambled to my feet and put the heart on the bed sheet, my eyes stinging with tears.

"That's right." her voice echoed. "Just leave him with his torn out heart. Leave him to clean up the pieces and you can just walk away." her voice was scaring me so much that I did start to walk away. "See, you're leaving him. Aren't you meant to hold his heart forever. I _gave _you his heart, yet you're still walking away from it. You don't _really_ care about him. You just delude yourself and others into thinking that you're perfect for him. But you can't fool me, that's not what I see."

"Stop it!" I screamed at her and I felt myself stumbled against a large object.

I turned around to find a large oval mirror behind me, one that I had never seen before.

I stared at my panicked, bloody handed reflection for some time. But soon, my reflection began to have a mind of its own. It began to scratch its chest, then it's face and arms. Eventually it wasn't just curing an itch; it was scratching the skin away.

I did nothing except watch as my skin was peeled away like a shell and Lauren's body replaced mine.

As I stared down at my own body I saw no flesh, only muscle and bone.

Of course, whatever happens to Lauren when she's in my form, happens to the original form as well.

I looked at her again to watch her cold, pale face grinning at me.

"I'm closer than you think, Renesmee."

With a jolt, I was lying down, facing the ceiling. I could feel the sweat dripping down my face and my damp back stuck to my shirt.

Darn my subconscious guilty mind.

Birds were singing outside and light was shining through the cracks of the curtains.

"Renesmee?" I heard Bella outside my room. "Is everything okay?"

My heart rate started to slow and I could begin thinking straight.

"Urm... Yeah. Everything's fine." I lied.

"Can I come in?" she asked.

"Sure." I didn't hesitate. I was too panicked to say 'no' to her and after that dream I just needed to see her, just to make sure she was alright.

Bella opened my bedroom door and her beautiful face peered in.

"I heard you- Oh my _god, _Renesmee." she bolted into the room and was at my side in a millisecond. "What happened?" she was looking at me with sheer panic across her face.

"What are you talking about?"

As she touched my chest, she pulled a hand back and it was covered in blood.

"What happened to you?"

I looked down my body then. My scars. My scratches from a week ago were... Bleeding.

My dream.

When I saw myself scratching in the reflection, I was scratching at my skin in my sleep and I was scratching so hard that I'd ripped some of my wounds open again. And then I saw my blood stained finger nails; they'd even chipped in places to make them sharper.

"Oh my-"

"Well, it looks like the hunting trips off."

I looked at her. "What do you mean?"

"We thought that maybe it could do you some good to get you out of the house and we thought of taking you hunting, up in Canada. But like this-"

"-No! I'll be fine. I'd love to go hunting. Mom, I _need_ to go."

She held my face in her hands and kissed my forehead.

"Oh." she said suddenly. "You're not going to rip my head off for doing that, are you?"

"Don't say that!" I snapped, remembering the sight of Bella's head on a metal shelf. "That's not funny."

Bella looked at me with confused eyes, but she ignored it.

"Alright, well, we'll go tomorrow night, depending on how you feel. By the way, tonight, we're going out to help look for Lauren. With Sam's pack in too, we can search farther than before. So, we're going to leave you in Tracy's care."

"_What_?"

"She's a newborn vampire-"

"-Exactly, she's psychotic. She doesn't know what she's doing-"

"But she's stronger than Lauren, Renesmee. She's a perfect... _Guard_ for you."

"You mean like a babysitter?"

She sighed. "Renesmee, please be good to her. She's been through a lot-"

"Oh, I know she has. I just can't believe you've given your eighteen year old daughter a babysitter. Gee, thanks mom."

**I hope you enjoyed it! **

**Thank you ElizabellaLove for helping me brainstorm for like an hour for this chapter!**

**Anyway, let me know what you think! Please review!**

**and I'll try to update soon! :) x**


	14. Would This Be Classed As 'Betrayal?

**Okay, here's the next chapter - which is in Jacob's POV again :)**

**Enjoy!**

**Would This Be Classed As 'Betrayal'? **  
><strong>Jacob<strong>

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER TWENTY FOUR HOURS THAT RENESMEE HATED MY guts - or was just 'pissed off', as she stated. I didn't believe that. That had to have be her most convincing lie to date though, I'll give her that.

But she was stubborn, she was damn stubborn and there was no changing that. Every day I would visit her and hope that she'd had a change of heart, but she was always the same. I was running out of ideas - sorry just didn't seem to cut it anymore. What exactly did she want from me?

My heart on a platter?

My soul in a blood bag?

She was meant to go hunting tonight and she would be back tomorrow morning. Maybe that was what she needed - to hunt. Let out her anger on the animals of Canada's forests. I hoped that was all she needed. It would make life so much better if I could just go and see _my _Renesmee every day, not a Renesmee who's being as cold as her family's skin.

At least five times every day I pictured that engagement ring in that envelope and I would feel a shadow crouch over me. I tried to avoid thinking about it other than when I was walking on two legs, I didn't want the pack to be distracted by my sob stories. It seemed that nowadays I would wake with that spec of hope that maybe today would be the day things would turn around and she'd talk to me, forgive me. But no. On the nights when I _did _go to bed, I would go with shattered hope again. It was a vicious cycle.

So, on the evening of when the Cullens were due to go hunting, I was surprised to get a call from their house.

"Hello?" I answered, more or less expecting to hear Bella's voice on the other end.

I wasn't expecting to hear from any of them tonight and nothing had prepared me for who had actually called me.

"Jake?" said Renesmee.

I didn't really know what to say. I was so surprised that she'd called me that I was silent for a long time.

"Jake?" she asked again. "Are you there?"

"Er- yeah-" I cleared my throat. "Yeah, I'm here. I wasn't expecting-"

"I know, I'm sorry this is unexpected-"

"No, no, it's fine. It's great, actually."

"I know this is probably a lot to ask, considering how I've been-"

"What is it? Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, everything's fine. The others have gone hunting, they took Tracy with them."

"I thought you were supposed to go hunting tonight?"

"I was - but I'm just not feeling up to it, so I decided to stay at home." my stomach plummeted then.

"Hang on, so, they left you at home _on your own_?"

"Yeah. I was going to ask you if you could come over, that is if you're not busy. I really need to talk to you, things have just been falling apart and it's killing me, Jacob. Please, can you come?"

I couldn't believe she'd just been left there her own and I couldn't believe that she'd said 'no' to hunting.

"I'll be there in a minute." and I hung up, I couldn't risk her being alone any longer than she already had been. I didn't even know how long she'd already been alone.

I left home less than a minute later. At the speed I was running, it only took me a few minutes to reach her house.

"Ness?" I called as I walked through the door. The living room was empty and I was about to go find her until she called back.

"I'll be down in a minute!" she said.

"I can come up if you want-"

"No!" she yelled sharply, then she returned to her normal self. "Just, stay down there - I'll be down in a- in a moment."

"You sure you're alright?"

When she replied her voice was closer and it sounded as if she was coming down the hall. I looked up and saw her at the top of the stairs and gracefully glided down them.

She looked... _Stunning_. I mean, she always looked stunning but there was something different about her today. It could have been just the mood - she didn't seem so resentful and it made me relax. Or it could have been how she smiled, it wasn't her most brilliant smile, but it was still one of her many smiles that I loved. Or it could have been how flawless her skin looked- wait - why is her skin flawless? What happened to the scars?

"Hi." she smiled. "You alright? You look sort of startled."

"You look... _Amazing_." I said as she approached me. "Guess the scars cleared up pretty quick. Insanely quick."

She gave a small shrug. "Guess so."

"So, you're really alone?"

"Yup. Well, I _was_ alone... Then you came!" there was a strange spark in her voice. In fact there was just something strange about her, she seemed really happy. The happiest I'd seen her in weeks actually.

"So," I began, sliding my hand into my pockets. "Whatcha wanna talk about?"

"You know what I wanna talk about, Jacob. This 'thing' we've got going on, it's wrong, and I'm sorry it's dragged out so long. You should've told me the truth, I'm never going to say you were right for not telling me. But I've been pretty hard on you and I'm sorry. I'm really sorry."

So it looked like today would be the day she'd forgive me. Finally.

"It's alright. Really, I'm just glad that you're not mad at me anymore. You have no idea how much it's been killing me-"

"- I think I do." that was when she wrapped her hands round my neck and kissed me. It was the first time I'd felt her lips against mine in ages and there was something about it that brought strength to me that I hadn't felt before.

I didn't know how much she'd really forgiven me, so I decided to test the waters. Ours lips broke.

"I love you." I told her. She looked me straight in the eyes and I noticed how vibrant her brown eyes were. It was like there was a rainbow hidden beneath the brown - what was wrong with me today?

Her eyes just looked so warm. They were a deeper brown than usual there was almost a hint of red to the brown.

That was weird. That was _really _weird.

But she smiled at me. "I love you too." and I forgot ever worrying about her appearance.

"But," I held her shoulders and pushed her back a little so that I could really look at her. "You know that I'm sorry, right?" I asked. "I am _really _sorry that I didn't say anything."

She put a finger to my lips. "I know you're sorry, don't worry. I knew you were from the start, I was just too mad to see it."

I don't think she really understood how happy she'd made me and what she had just said had made me feel so relieved. There had been so many times over the past week where I had been so sure that I'd ruined everything. And the longer she resented me, the less hope I had for us. But everything was starting to look up again.

"Like I said, Jacob, I will always love you, not matter what. But that doesn't mean that you're immune to pissing me off. I just wish that you'd learn that there are something's that you _need_ to tell me."

"I know, I should've learned from last time."

"_Last time_?" she asked.

"Yeah, Y'know, the whole me and Bella complicated past thing? You got angry because I should have told you, and I didn't."

Her lips twitched slightly. "Wait- yeah, why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I knew that you'd be upset, _devastated_. Why would I want to do something like that to you?"

She sighed with a small grin on her face. "Well, unless you were trying deliberately to break my heart, I don't see why."

"Exactly, and I would never do that to you. I promise-"

"Jacob, I know there's something you're dying to ask me. Something that will make everything better. Something that will fix what is broken, so why don't do us both a favor and just do it?" she smiled suggestively at me. And she was right, I just didn't know if _it_ was right. I didn't bring the ring with me. But it didn't matter, I could give it to her later. That is if she agreed.

I held her face and kissed her before asking "Will you marry me?"

She smiled and kissed me again. "Of course."

I found it weird when she locked the front door, but didn't push it when she slid her fingers through mine and led me up the stairs. A surge flushed through my veins as I shut her bedroom door behind me. Generally, when her family go hunting we would make the most of having the house to ourselves. And I suppose I still had expectations of that now that things were normal again, or reasonably normal. When she was practically pinning me to the door with our lips locked, I didn't see disappointment lurking anywhere nearby.

I wrapped my arms around her and lifted her before taking her over to the bed and dropping us onto it. It wasn't until I started to run my hands down her and her kisses became more forceful that I noticed how she wasn't kissing me like she would _usually _kiss me. It was hard for me to think about it when she was clawing at me like a... Like an _animal_.

I stared in wonder at every inch of flawless skin on her body as she sat on top of me. She ran her hands up my chest as she bent down to hover her lips over mine. There was definitely something different about her - and I liked it. She kissed me and I held her there for a long while then she smiled as she took her mouth away.

"Y'know, for a dog, you're very tamed, aren't you?" she said, extending her arms and putting her weight on her hands.

It took me a while to fully comprehend what she said. Was that a joke? For a joke, she said it pretty seriously.

But I laughed it off, nervously. Then she smiled and brought herself down again so her nose was only inches away from mine and she added,

"Shame you're just not as smart as you are tamed."

"What-?" and she crushed her lips to mine. And she giggled through the kisses.

"You and her are so alike. So stupid." And I felt her hair run across my face. I opened my eyes to find platinum blond curls running over my eyes.

She sat up again and I was about to launch myself at her but she clasped her icy hand around my throat.

"As much as I was looking forward to sleeping with, I gotta run. But don't worry, I'll leave you with something to remember this by." and before I could react she drew her hand back and in a flash, everything went black.

**Alright, so this one was pretty short in comparison to the others :/ Sorry about that.**

**Anyway, let me know what you think! I hope you liked it!**

**Please Review!**

**and I'll try to update soon :) x**


	15. Forgive and Let Live

**Okay, here's the next chapter - back in Renesmee's POV :)**

**Enjoy!**

**Forgive and Let Live**  
><strong>Renesmee<strong>

I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT IT WAS, BUT I JUST DIDN'T FEEL LIKE SPENDING THE entire night hunting. We'd only been hunting for about five hours and I wanted to go home. I told the rest of my family that they should stay and get all their strengths up and I told them I would go home. Surprisingly, I'd made it home without a scratch, well, except from the ones I already had.

When I reached the house, it was in complete darkness.

_That's weird_, I thought.

We'd left Tracy at home so she could get used to the place. So, unless she was really taking the whole 'being a vampire' thing seriously by hiding in the dark, something was wrong.

I went to open the front door to find it locked. Why was the door locked? Luckily, there was a spare pair of keys in the lamp outside the door. When I walked in I switched on the nearest light.

"Tracy?" I called. "Tracy, is everything okay?"

No response. My eyes narrowed at the empty room. I took another step in and shut the door behind me.

"Tracy!" I called again, a little louder and forceful this time. But silence still filled her response. As I stepped forward to turn on another lamp, I noticed a piece of paper on the table. A note.

_Cullens,_

_In case I'm still not here when you get home, I decided to go hunting. I'm going to try to find you first, but on the chance that I'll get lost, I'm going to stay close to here. Don't worry, I haven't gone on a rampage and there won't be a massacre._

_I hope you enjoy hunting, see you soon._

_Tracy._

If she wanted to hunt then why didn't she just come in the first place? Unless she was scared?

There was a chance that she wasn't ready to be alone yet. I mean, she was scared of Lauren - and why shouldn't she be? _I'm _scared of her. But going out there was only going to increase her chances of encountering Lauren.

Well, it's her funeral.

As I rested the paper on the table again, I noticed the bloody fingerprints that stained it. Then I looked at my own hands.

"Damn." I muttered. My hands were covered in blood. I wandered into the dark kitchen and washed my hands in the sink, only to notice the blood that mattered chunks of my hair.

I let out an exasperated sigh and stormed out the kitchen. It looked like I was going to need a shower. I didn't realise quite how aggressive and careless I'd been when hunting tonight, I was actually covered head to toe in blood.

It was the smell of blood on me that had made me completely oblivious to the stench of more blood radiating from my room. I caught a new whiff of blood as I reached my bedroom door.

For a moment I lingered by the nearly closed door, trying to make sense of the new blood and comparing it to the smell of the blood that stained my clothes. Then, without further ado, I opened my bedroom door.

Walking into my room was like walking into a nightmare, and I nightmare that wasn't unfamiliar with. I was lost for words when I froze at the sight of Jacob, lying on my bed, covered in blood. _His _blood. My once white bed sheets were now a new shade of red and patches of blood stained the carpet too.

"Jacob?" I threw myself forward and put my hands to his face.

_Please don't be dead, please don't be dead,_ I pleaded. Where he had once been injured were now mere scars, but the amount of blood around him made me sick with the idea of what he must have looked like before.

"_Jacob_?" I started to cry. "_Please_, Jacob, can you hear me?"

But he didn't respond. There was a deep scratch still, on his face. As I collapsed to the floor, I noticed his chest still rising, slowly but steadily.

He was still alive.

This was a perfect example of why I didn't want Carlisle to leave us. I sat there for a while, holding tightly onto his hand.

"Don't leave me, Jacob. _Please_, don't leave me."

The smell of his blood was starting to make me feel queasy; I needed the smell to go away. So, after some time of sitting by him, I ran him a bath. It was then I was thankful for having very recently hunted, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to lift him. It was still difficult, but I managed to lift and carry him from the bed to the bathtub in my bathroom. Luckily he didn't have any wounds that I needed to worry about damaging anymore, besides the mark on his face.

I had the lights on dim so that the bright light didn't startle him if he were to wake. It only took minutes for the water to go from clear to bloody, but at least it wasn't on him anymore. With a large sponge, I gently dabbed his body clean. Sometimes, when I looked at his face, I felt my eyes begin to water, but I managed to conceal my tears.

When I started to stroke his shoulder and squeeze warm water on it, Jacob woke. I drew back my hands - that were still shaking - and rested them on the edge of the tub.

It took him a while to gain awareness of his location and I could have sworn that the first time he looked at me, he flinched.

"Don't worry, you're just in my bathroom." I said, nervously.

He didn't say anything, he just stared at me. After a while, his stare was starting to scare me a little. He looked at me like he didn't know who I was.

"Jacob, _please _stop staring at me like that."

"Who are you?"

I didn't say anything at first, I just watched him carefully.

"Jacob, this isn't funny."

"Are you _really _Renesmee?"

My jaw dropped. "_What_? Of course I am. Who else would I-" it was then I realised what had happened to him. I should have realised before but he was in such a traumatic state that I hadn't thought of how he got like it.

"She tricked you, didn't she?" I asked. He relaxed slightly and finally stopped staring at me.

"I should've figured it out sooner."

"Why didn't you?"

He sighed, "Because I was so desperate for you to forgive me that I was too happy to consider it could be a trap."

I dipped the sponge in the water again and felt a small grin break on my face.

"What are you smiling at?" he asked. "Does my nearly dying humor you?"

"No. Just your complete lack of observation."

"I'm glad I've finally done _something_ to make you smile. You've been difficult to please recently."

My grin only grew wider. "She must've been quite a convincing Renesmee."

"What d'you mean-?"

"Jacob, let's not forget that although you were covered in your own blood, I still found you naked on my bed." he brought his hands up to his face and rubbed his eyes. "Or did you think I wouldn't notice that?"

"Ness, I am so, so sorry-"

"Jacob, I don't want you to apologise. I'm tired of hearing you apologise. Just do me a favor and stop apologising or at least stop screwing up."

I rubbed the sponge against his neck and kept my eyes on the sponge, even when I could see that he was staring at me again.

"I can wash myself, y'know." he said.

"I know you can." I insisted. "I just thought that maybe you'd like if I washed you instead." then I paused dabbing the sponge and looked at him for a moment before backing away, "But if you want to do it then-"

As I backed away, he reached for my arm. "No, no. I'm fine with you doing it."

I smirked and filled the sponge with water again.

"You've got a lot of blood in your hair." he told me.

"Thanks."

"I think you need a bath too." when I looked at him, he was grinning.

"If you're suggesting that I get in that bath too - no. There's more blood in there than what's in my hair. Besides, unless I was some kind of psycho, I don't think I'd take pleasure in bathing in my boyfriend's blood."

"So I _am_ still your boyfriend?" he asked. I didn't say anything. I just rinsed the bloody sponged and filled it with more diluted blood. "What's made you change?"

"What's made _what_ change?"I asked.

"Your attitude to me."

I sighed and wiped the last patch of blood off his face. "The fact that I dreamt of you dying and that only twenty minutes ago I actually thought I'd lost you. _That's _what changed."

He didn't speak as I rinsed the remaining blood out the sponge and pulled the plug. When all the water was gone, I told him to stand up. He managed to stand up fine on his own which looked pretty good on behalf of his recovery.

The second he was stood in the tub, I pulled the shower curtain across and turned the shower on. I stripped off my blood stained clothes and faced the fact that they would never be warn again.

"What are you doing?" he asked from behind the curtain.

"Washing my hair." I told him as I stepped into the shower with him.

I moved around him to get under the shower head. As I ran my fingers through my wet hair, I looked at Jacob who was standing there with a confused look on his face.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I'm starting to doubt whether or not you _are_ Renesmee." he told me.

"What makes you think I'm not?"

"The shower. The whole _seductive _behavior. The bath-"

"I was cleaning you, Jacob. I was cleaning the blood off your body after you made the mistake of falling for the _seductive behavior _of someone else. The shower is to get the blood out of our hair and the rest of the body off our bodies. Just because I forgive you, doesn't mean you have full access again."

I squirted some shampoo in my hand and began rubbing it thoroughly through my hair. Jacob stepped forward and ran his hands down my raised arms before tracing them down my sides, my hips and they stopped on my waist. I continued to wash my hair and didn't give him the satisfaction of reacting to his touches. When I was sure the shampoo had washed through I turned put my whole body under the shower head, realign myself from Jacob's grip. As my hair dropped against my back with the weight and pull of the water, Jacob had his arms around me again.

What exactly was he hoping to achieve?

Shower sex?

Affection?

Just attention?

I raised my head to rise out the last bubbles of shampoo and he started to kiss my neck. His kisses had taken me so much by surprise that I sharply inhaled and some water went down into my lungs. Without warning I exploded into a fit of coughing.

Jacob backed away then and when I'd finally been able to control myself I turned to him.

"Sorry, I didn't think you would take anything-"

But before he could finish I grabbed the back of his neck and pulled his lips down to mine. At first it took him a while to comprehend what was happening, but soon he wrapped his hands around my waist again.

It was the bang of the front door downstairs that caused us to separate - which I was extremely grateful for.

"They're home." I breathed as I tried to make sense of everything. I turned the shower off and grabbed the nearest towel, I grabbed another one underneath it and tossed it at Jacob.

As I was about to hurry out the bathroom door, Jacob grabbed my arm.

"Hey, yeah, they're home. So what? Does that mean that the fun stops just because they came home?"

I titled my head. "Jacob, we needed to stop anyway. I don't hate you anymore, but you still need to earn my trust again. I'm sorry I kissed you, I shouldn't have. I was just... Weak. That's all."

He wrapped the towel round his waist and came over to me.

"What do you want me to do?"

"I want you to be my friend and my protector. You'll have to earn my trust back to be my fiancé again-"

"Renesmee?" someone called me downstairs. But it wasn't the voice of my family... It was Claire's voice.

"Claire's here? She's meant to be on her honeymoon." I dashed out the room and ran to the top of the stairs to find Quil and Claire standing in the living room.

"Quil, Claire, what are you doing here? You're meant to be away for another two weeks."

"Claire told me about the stuff that's been going on here-"

"-So I told him that I thought we should come home."

"Are you _insane_?" I exclaimed. "When people are told that there's a psychotic, revenge-seeking vampire on the loose, they generally _stay where they are_. They don't come home to where the chaos is!"

"I figured you needed help." said Quil.

"Sam's got his pack helping out too." said Jacob, coming down the stairs. I didn't look at him, but Claire looked at me, up and down and then looked back at him, raising an eyebrow. I knew that our conditions weren't too convincing after I told her on the phone that we'd broke up. I hadn't even thought about my lack of clothing as I rushed to see them.

"Looks like you've got everyone out on patrol." said Quil, looking around the living room.

"Except for Edward and Carlisle, they're gone."

"Gone where?"

"Italy, they think that the Volturi might know how to stop her."

"Simple." he said. "Corner her, aim for the throat and take her head off."

"What about when she poses as Renesmee?"

"Still take her head off, what difference does it make?"

"The difference is that it would kill Ness too. We can't harm Lauren in anyway whilst she's in Renesmee's form. I mean, look what it did last time." Jacob pointed to a few of the scars and scratches on my arm.

"Geez." Quil muttered. "So... What's the plan?"

"We keep a look out for her; hopefully we can find her and trap her."

"What about Abi's cousin?" asked Claire.

"She's with us." I said. "Well, she is until she can control herself."

"You _found _her?"

"No, she came to us. But watch out for her... I think there might be a screw loose somewhere in there." then I looked down at my wet body, coated in a towel. "I think I'd better go and... Dry off." as I began to walk away from the three of them, I quickly turned to Quil and Claire.

"Oh and by the way, you're going to regret the day you returned to Forks early, trust me."

**Hope you enjoyed it!**

**Let me know what you think! Please review**

**and I'll update soon! :) x**


	16. Timing

**Okay, first off I am really, really, eternally sorry for how long it's taken me to update. I've had stuff that I've needed to write for college and another story too. Every time I went to write for Last Quarter - my mind just went blank - so I decided to give Lauren a little chapter and I'm fixing to write the next chapter now and hopefully will have it up later :)**

**Enjoy!**

**Timing**  
><strong>Lauren<strong>

I ALWAYS WONDER IF HE WOULD THANK ME FOR WHAT I'M DOING. Would he be proud of me? And it's the fact that I have to wonder that makes me more determined to destroy her. I add something new to my list of 'Torture for Renesmee' everyday, sometimes I even manage to tick it off by the end of the day.

I watch her like a lion watches a gazelle. Whilst her family hunt for me, I watch her from the trees, see her break further and further. If I didn't despise her so much I might have considered it sad. But she was getting everything she deserved, and then some. But over the past couple of weeks, I've seen her become that little less isolated. She has another human with her now and the pack of dogs have another mutt to help them. That Jacob of hers is also back in the picture. He's around her a lot more and she doesn't seem to be pushing him away.

Damn.

Are you watching me, Leo?

Am I doing good?

No, I'm not doing good. She's starting to sew the seams back together right under my nose. She's even started to lighten up around her mother a little too. Her father, Edward still isn't back and neither is the doctor.

I plan to take advantage of that.

But, timing is still crucial and when the times right... I'll cause a little more damage.

**Again, I'm sorry for the delay and hopefully there'll be a new chapter later today :)**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little chapter**

**and I WILL update soon! :) x**


	17. No Power

**Okay, here's the next chapter - sorry it too a little longer to post than I expected, I needed to get my mind set back on the plot of Last Quarter :)**

**Anyway, here's the next chapter! **

**Enjoy!**

**No Power**  
><strong>Renesmee<strong>

I PRESSED MY FINGERS AGAINST THE COOL GLASS OF MY BEDROOM WINDOW and stared. I stared across the tree tops in a daydream - hoping to console myself with a random happy thought, but nothing came.

"We're leaving." Jacob's voice made me flinch, but it made me happy at the same time. Unfortunately, his words hadn't given me the same joy.

I sighed and joined him in my doorway. "Can't you stay? Just for tonight, please?"

He shook his head and held my face "Ness, I can't. I'm sorry - don't worry. You've got Tracy here with you and... Someone else will be by soon to keep you company."

I frowned as he kissed my head and walked back down the hall.

"Who?" I asked, following him to the stairs.

He grinned, "Just someone. Now, don't give Tracy grief about wanting to leave - she's not letting you go anywhere. You're stay right here, in this house-"

"-I'm under house arrest - I get it, geez." I moaned. "Tell me something I don't already know."

"How about that I love you?" he smiled. "Do you know that?"

I smiled as he pulled me into his chest and wrapped his arms around me. "You've mentioned it once or twice."

My family, excluding Edward and Carlisle, were waiting downstairs, ready to go, as were Jacob's pack, well, most of them - Quil was missing.

Jasper stood as Jacob and I walked down the stairs. "Sam and his pack have already headed east - are you alright to take north?"

Jacob nodded, "Sure thing - where's Ateara? He should be here by now."

"He should be here any minute now." said Seth, leaning against the back of an armchair. Out the corner of my eye I saw Tracy join the living room from the kitchen, she smiled at me. "We'll have fun tonight - you'll be too distracted to think about where and how everyone is."

I studied her for a moment, "What exactly is 'fun' to you?"

She grinned "You'll see."

Jacob squeezed me and I turned from Tracy to him with a slightly worried look on my face.

"You'll be fine." he told me.

Just then, the front door opened and Quil waltzed in, followed by Claire.

"You took your time." Jacob snapped.

"Sorry, Jake - Claire was slow at packing-"

"-packing?" I interrupted, then I looked at Claire. "Why are you packing?"

She grinned. "Well, although this has become my second home - you still haven't made a section for me in your wardrobe. So I still have to bring my clothes over here."

"Y-you're staying here?"

She rolled her eyes, "Don't get too excited, Renesmee."

"I'm sorry. I _am _excited but, I'm also a little worried."

"Why?"

"You do realise you're staying with the target of the trouble, right?"

"With me out, Claire's alone in that house." said Quil. "I don't want her to be left alone. Even though you're the target, I know that you'd still keep her safe."

A small rush of happiness ran through me then. He trusted me. Quil trusted me with Claire's life regardless of the situation.

I smiled at him and went to stand by Claire and hooked my arm around hers. "I'll take good care of her."

"I know you will."

As the remaining seated, stood, I started to hear rain start up again outside, falling into puddles and making new ones.

Jacob sighed. "Hunting in the rain, at night. Perfect."

I left Claire's side and went to join Jacob.

"You know you can stay-"

"-No, I can't. And you know I can't. Besides, it's just a little rain. It's cats that don't like water, anyway."

I smiled and he pulled me into his arms. "I'll be back by morning." he whispered. "Have fun with Claire and Tracy - don't worry about us, we'll be fine."

After they left, the rain quickly developed into a storm. Claire and I sat in my low lit bedroom, trying to make conversation between anxiously staring out the window. The wind howled past my window and through every branch of every tree as it threw rain at the glass as if it were trying to break in. When lightening lit the sky we saw flashing pictures outside of the trees bending in different directions and the thunder that followed grumbled and snapped so loudly that the floor vibrated.

On my nightstand, my phone was staring at me and screaming, screaming for me to call one of them and tell them to call off the search tonight. The weather may not have bothered them, but it was bothering me, and Claire.

"Do you think they're okay?" Claire finally asked. To reassure each other, we hadn't mentioned the hunt or the well being of our friends and family out there – we commented on the strength of the storm every now and then, but that was all.

I sighed "I'm sure they're coping. It takes a lot for them to get distracted when it's life or death."

"I know." She grumbled. "I wish they would just think things through better. What they need-"

"They need a tactic, that's what they need." I stood from my bed then and walked over to the window. "They need a game plan, at least some knowledge of how to act when they _do _find her." Then I sighed and faced her. "I think we should call off the search-"

"And just let Lauren find you?" she snapped. "No way."

"Claire, couldn't they at least wait until my dad and Carlisle come back?" I huffed. "I mean, they'll know something, hopefully, _then_ we can make a plan and with that I'll be more willing to let them go."

"Renesmee, it's not your decision if they go or not. If it was then you'd never let them leave."

"Yeah, because I _care_ about them – is that so wrong?"

"No-"she didn't say any more.

I knew that, deep down, she wanted to mention Bella. She wanted to ask me about what state our mother, daughter relationship was in. Honestly, it was better. A day or so after I forgave Jacob, I apologized to Bella – thankfully, she understood and she didn't blame me, regardless of how upset she was. In some ways I suppose I was a little harsh with everything I did and said, but they wouldn't understand the true fear I was feeling – they could only imagine.

Claire let out a long sigh as she slid off my bed and came over to the window.

"So, I see you and Jacob have… made up."

I nodded, but didn't speak.

"Why the sudden change of heart?" she asked. "Or was ignoring him just becoming so unbearable you caved in?"

"I dreamt that I lost him." I said, bluntly.

"Huh?"

"I dreamt that I lost him and then the next day I found him and… I thought I had." Before she could respond, I continued. "In those few minutes where I thought he was dead, it made me realise that no matter how angry I get with him, no matter how bad the thing is he's done – I can't live without him. I also realised how badly I'd treated him in what would have been his last week. If he had a week left to live, that should _not_ be how he's treated. I love him, Claire and it doesn't matter what happens – I'm never going to want him any less, only more."

For a moment, she was silent. And then gave a short laugh and put her hand on my shoulder.

"So you've finally woken up." She grinned. "Renesmee, you're _always_ going to come crawling back."

Rolled my eyes and brushed her hand off my shoulder, "Do you have to make it sound so pathetic?"

She smiled, "I'm only saying what's true, Ness-"

Black.

For a split second I thought I'd passed out without feeling the fall or I'd random shut my eyes without realising. But when the lightning flashed and lit up my room, myself, Claire and everywhere else the light could touch I saw the storm had caused a power out.

Perfect, just perfect.

"Well," sighed Claire. "This is nice."

I titled my head, not that she could see me. I could roughly see her, but my vision wasn't as good as a vampire's, only half as good.

"Tracy?" I called towards the door, but there was no response. I frowned at the silent darkness where somewhere my door stood.

"Maybe she just can't here you." Said Claire as I moved towards my door.

"She's a new born vampire; of _course_ she can hear me." I went to reach for my door and stopped. "I'm gonna go and find some candles – we can have a candle lit conversation."

"How romantic." laughed Claire. "Do you need me to do anything?"

"Just stay here, okay?"

As lightning flashed again, I saw her figure sit back on the bed. "Got it. I'll just wait here."

The hallways were black; I could barely see my own hand in front of my face. I kept my left hand on the wall to trace where exactly doors were and stairs began. I wasn't entirely sure where there would be any candles, if we even had any. But I knew there was a room down the end of the hall that had been made Tracy's room. – before she came along that room was filled with various essentials and one a few occasions I could have sworn I'd come across a pack of candles in there.

So, I carried on down the hall to Tracy's room – maybe she would even be in there, lighting the candles. Everything in this situation would be easy for her; she had much better vision than me.

Inside her room there was no more life or light than what there was anywhere else in the house. Tracy wasn't in there, so I suppose it was up to me. The room had been converted into a bedroom, even though she didn't sleep. The unorganized layout of the previous room had disappeared and now everything had been arranged to perfection. Great.

Somewhere in my memory I could remember there being a tall set of drawers on the candles being in the top drawer.

Tracing my fingers across the edge of the bed I walked over to the drawers by the window. A sigh of relief passed my lips as I opened the top drawer, felt around and brushed past roughly four or five thick sticks that soon turned out to be the candles I was looking for. I felt around for the matches and there was one candle holder in the drawer too, thankfully.

I was careful when lighting the match, but it was such a relief when the candle was lit. I could see the other candles in the drawer and picked them out. However, there was something else in that drawer too.

A very small tub, in the shape of the figure eight. I narrowed my eyes as I picked up the tub and opened it. Inside were two small doughnut shaped objects in some kind of liquid. It took me a moment or two to realise what they were… they were contact lenses, brown ones. In fact, they were my shade of brown. Why would any of my family use contact lenses? - Or Tracy for that matter. Unless she wanted to blend in whilst her eyes were still red? But surely, if she were to do that, she'd use green. Green was her natural eye color.

I thought through it again. Anyone who used those lenses was trying to disguise themselves. Then I thought of Lauren - she has a gift to disguise herself and a few days ago she'd snuck into my house, shifted into me, seduced Jacob and very nearly killed him. She would have needed contacts to hide her red eyes, which would explain why the contacts are my shade of brown... But, that didn't explain why the hell they were here-

Tracy.

Lauren took and changed Tracy so that she could disguise herself as the victim and come into this family without question.

All this time... Lauren had been living with us. Right under our noses and we hadn't realised. _That _was why they never found her - because she was here. Tracy hadn't gone hunting the day Jacob was attacked, she just changed forms.

I dropped the lenses and left the candle.

"Claire?" I called as I bolted out the room. "Claire!"

I reached my bedroom and she wasn't in there. My heart sank before it pounded faster. Where was she?

"Claire!" I was screaming her name now as I left my room. Down the hall, a sudden pain filled my head and I dropped to the floor, holding my head in my hands.

I started to see something, like a vision. Just like the one I saw of the forest some weeks ago.

My head throbbed as I saw myself from behind, getting closer. I flipped onto my back in a panic, staring at the empty darkness behind me.

The cold breath had turned into a breeze that ran over my body. In a hazy flash, I saw myself again, now I could see me closer and I was panicking like crazy. I was looking straight at myself with terror screaming in my eyes.

When I found myself staring at darkness again I scrambled to me feet and ran away.

As I ran, I was disorientated, running from side to side, little by little. I kept my hand on the wall for balance, but eventually the wall ran out. I had no support. As I stumbled, the floor fell away and my knees buckled as I too fell.

The edge of each step hit different parts of my body and all I saw a lightning flash and a blonde figure at the stop of the stairs, staring down at me.

Bump.

Crack.

Bang.

Snap!

As my body lay helplessly on the floor at the bottom my eyes gently fluttered shut to a whole new darkness.

**Hope you enjoyed it!**

**Just so you know... I'm thinking of writing the next chapter in Claire's POV (I'm not sure)**

**Anyway, let me know what you think! Pleas, please review!**

**And I'll try to update soon :)**


	18. Montana

**Okay, I am so sorry it's taken so long to update - just blame college. BUT! I've only got a couple more weeks to go, then I'm off for summer so I should be updating a lot more! :)**

**Anyway, hope you enjoy!**

**Montana**

WHEN I SLOWLY STARTED TO REGAIN CONSCIOUSNESS, the first thing that surprised me was the beeping of a heart monitor. I couldn't remember what had happened to me, but I could remember the blonde figure at the top of the stairs, staring down at me.

The next surprise, or shock, was the stiffness of my back, the pain in my ribs and the tight, soreness of my skin. After a few moments, I began to hear voices. I couldn't make sense of any of them, they were just muffled sounds.

My throat was so dry and so very sore. I dried to swallow, but even my mouth was drying up and the small drop of saliva I managed to form couldn't moist my entire mouth or sooth my throat.

A muffled sound, one that seemed closer than the others came even closer. Slowly, as they spoke, the sound began to form comprehendible words.

"-hear me?" I could make out Jacob's voice. "Ness?" I felt his warm hand stroke my cheek.

"Jake?" I spoke my first word and heard just how dry and hoarse my voice was - it was horrible to listen to.

"I'm here. How are you feeling?" he asked. I still hadn't managed to force my eyes open, they were so heavy.

"I-I feel horrible." I told him, it was then that I forced my eyes open. The light hurt my eyes, it was so bright... Too bright.

I flinched as the lit stung my eyes but I four to keep them open to let them adjust. Jacob was the first person I saw, he put his hand to my cheek.

"Are you alright?"

"What happened to me?" I looked around and saw Esme, Alice, Jasper, Emmett, Rosalie and Quil and Claire were in the room too.

Claire came to sit in the chair next to me. "You fell down the stairs. You managed to crack a rib and break your wrist, but you were lucky." then she grinned. "Trust you to end up in hospital by just fetching some candles."

I let out a short laugh, "It was dark."

"Like you can't see in the dark." she scoffed. "I heard you yelling though, before you fell. You were screaming - why?"

I frowned for a moment... Why was I screaming?

I tried to think back, but all I could remember was darkness. Darkness and pain. After a few minutes a light came into view, a small one and some other candles in a box... A drawer. Then there was an odd looking tub- the contact lenses.

I fell silent, but my heart monitor spoke for me as it began to pick up pace.

Jacob frowned and took my hand, my good hand. "Ness, what is it? What's wrong?"

"Tracy... Tracy is Lauren."

"What are you talking abou-?"

"Abi's cousin, Tracy - she was taken by Lauren in the forest. She was then kept away somewhere so Lauren could shift into her and play innocent newborn vampire-"

"-Wait, wait, wait" Jasper stepped forward, "Renesmee, how exactly do you know this? Did she shift in front of you?"

I shook my head, "No, but... I found her contacts. The day she shifted into me and tried to kill Jacob. That day she had to wear contacts to hide who she really was, I found the contacts she wore."

"But we don't know those contacts were used for that - how do we know she wasn't just trying to blend in?" Rosalie interrupted. "She could have used them when she went out, just to make her appear more human."

A lot of the others were looking at Rosalie and agreeing with her. They honestly trusted that girl - it made me sick.

I looked at Jacob. "Please, Jake, you have to believe me - you saw her, you saw her on the day she shifted into me. Tracy went 'hunting' and somehow Lauren got in the house. Don't you find that suspicious?"

He sighed, "Ness-"

My jaw dropped slightly. "You don't believe me."

"No, Ness-" he held my face. "I believe you." he looked at the others who seemed shocked that he doubted them, but at the same time weren't as they expected him to, naturally, agree with me.

Jacob sat down in a chair next to the bed and continued to hold my hand, he stroked it with his thumb. I looked down to find my other hand in a cast. I was tired of lying down and wanted to sit up, but as I tried a sharp pain snapped from around my ribs and I yelped. Esme was at my side in a second to help me.

"Don't move, sweetheart. You very nearly broke a rub, but if you move too much, you'll break it." she stroked my hair and pressed a button next to the bed to push the top half of the mattress up a little so I was halfway through lying down and sitting.

After a few moments, Jasper made for the door. Less than a second later, Alice followed. No one asked where they were going, but as Jasper opened the door, I caught a glimpse of my mother standing outside, and then I saw my dad, and Carlisle.

They were back!

Finally!

I let out a sigh of relief, "They're home." I smiled. Esme put a hand to my cheek. "They came home this morning, after they found out that you were in hospital."

Bella came few the door a few seconds later and came over to me. "Renesmee, are you alright?" she gently hugged me and held my face in her hands.

"I'm fine, mom-" then I noticed a new worry in her eyes that I'd never seen before. I frowned. "Mom, what's going on?"

She ignored my question and looked to Jacob. "Jake, can we talk to you outside, please?"

He looked at her for a few seconds, trying to guess what it was about. But when he gathered that it most probably concerned me he looked back at me and said, "I'll be back in a minute." he kissed my head and left with Bella. I frowned at the door.

I could roughly see their shows behind the foggy glassed door. I kept a close eye on Jacob's. From now and again he would put his hand to his head, other times he would runs he hands through his hair for the rest of it he stood with his arms tightly crossed.

The others in my hospital room spoke to one another, whereas I was not entirely in the right frame of mind to make conversation. My eyes never left the door.

After a long while, Bella opened the door again and indicated for the others to step outside for a moment, including Claire.

I looked away from the door once it was shut and I was alone. I looked up at the small TV in the corner of the room and yet I still couldn't stop thinking about what they were discussing outside.

Nearly thirty minutes later, the door opened and just Jacob came in, shutting the door behind him. He came over and sat on the chair next to my bed again and took my hand in his.

"So, what's going on?"

He sighed and looked at my hand for a moment and then looked at me.

"We're going away for a while."

My heart sank as I looked away from him, tears threatening. He saw the tears and took my face in his hands. "Ness, why are you crying?"

"Jake-" I took a deep breath. "Please, don't do this to me. You can't leave me, not now-"

He shook his head. "No, no, no, that's not what I meant. When I said we, I meant you and me."

I frowned. "Us?" I looked at him for a long while to see if he was joking. "Just the two of us?"

He nodded, "But, I wouldn't consider it much if a romantic getaway."

"What-?" I paused and thought for a second. When I was about to continue, he spoke again.

"We're going into hiding. Obviously someone needs to be with you and we figured you might panic less if I was with you."

I sighed and sort of felt good inside. Although a huge amount of my worry was always going to be about Jacob, there was still that part of me that would worry about my family. It wasn't that I doubted their ability or strength or anything, it was just the nagging in my mind that made me worry. It was just Lauren, the thought if her, the knowing how strong she was that made me worry.

"How long are we going away for?" I asked.

He sighed, "Until this is over." he said. "You can't be here whilst Tracy slash Lauren is in that house or anywhere near it. We need to get you to safety, somewhere where she won't find you. We have Edward back now, so we'll know when she's close."

I sighed. "So, do they all have a plan?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean once we've left. Do they have a plan for what they're going to do?"

"Well, the house will be unoccupied. Which means that they don't need to stay within close range of the house, so they're going to split up and search further, Sam's pack are joining in too."

I nodded. "So, Montana, huh?"

"Carlisle had a house made there, which they were planning on moving too once their time in Forks was done."

"You're acting like our time here wont be done."

"Because it'll be a long time before they move out. Forks has definitely offered changes to them that they weren't used to when moving around before."

"So, it's not just a little cabin in the woods then?"

He looked at me and then grinned. "This house was made for a family of vampires, I doubt it'll be a sub-standard cabin, Renesmee."

He had a point.

A day later, once my cast was changed and the dressing around my ribs was changed to fresh ones, we left for home. I felt stiff when I moved and it hurt my ribs when I first sat down in the back of my father's car. I tried to keep myself calm, even when I was surrounded by everyone on full alert. It reassured me that I was going away with Jacob, at least I could make sure that _he_ was safe, but I still had the worry of the rest of my family and the wolves.

Alice packed my suitcases for me and Carlisle gave me instructions on dealing with my healing ribs and wrist whilst he wasn't there. I wave of sadness ran through me as I entered the living room,knowing that it could be a long time before I came in here again. Alice came over to me and took my hand, "Everything's ready to go." then she moved her head closer to my ear. "Everything is going to be fine." she whispered, when she pulled her head away she winked at me and gave a little grin. I forced a smile back and leaned into her to hug her.

"Be careful, Alice and that's not just you, but everyone. Make sure they're careful-"

She sighed, "Renesmee Carlie Cullen, could you please have just a little more faith in us perhaps?"

I smiled weakly at her and looked away, "You're right, I'm sorry, I just-"

"-You worry too much." Jacob joined my side and gently put and hand around my waist. "They'll be fine."

I sighed and nodded.

We said our goodbyes before we were led towards the garage. I walked through, my hand tightly linked with Jacob's.

"Lauren recognises all our cars, so, you'll be travelling in something new." said Edward and he opened the garage door. "Happy birthday, Renesmee."

The door opened, then the lights automatically came on and my jaw dropped. In the middle of the room stood a sleek, black Aston Martin.

"Brand new, top of the range and not to mention tinted windows - it should mask you a little whilst you travel to you destination. The house has a garage, keep the car in there at all times unless you leave, of course. And at night, try to keep the lights on as low as possible. Not every room has curtains and we wanted the house to still appear deserted so it doesn't attract attention from anyone, not just Lauren."

Jacob nodded whilst I was still frozen in amazement.

"_This _is _mine_?" I asked, stepping a little towards the car, worried that just my breath might scratch it.

"It's all yours." smiled Edward. "We would have brought you another Mustang, seeing as you loved it so much, but we thought Lauren of all people would recognise it and suspect that you were it."

I turned to him and hugged him as tight as I could without causing myself too much pain. "I love it, thank you so much." Bella appear at his side with smile on her face from my reaction.

Edward pulled me back slightly and looked at me. "Now, Renesmee, whilst you're away I want you to remember something-" I nodded in response. "-Jacob is in charge. You're not allowed to leave that house unless we call to say its safe to leave, don't worry, Jacob isn't leaving either. Food and blood is already supplied at the house, so you won't need to worry about hunting or grocery shopping. If Jacob tells you to hide, you hide, if he tells you to run, you run. But most importantly, if he tells you to come back, you go back to him, understand? I know how you enjoy being rebellious, Renesmee but right now isn't the time for that and it definitely isn't the time to start playing superheroes."

I slowly nodded and sighed. "I understand." I said, sullenly.

He nodded, "Good." then he looked at Jacob. "And Jacob, take care of my daughter."

"You don't even have to tell me." he put his arm around me. "I'll protect her with my life."

I rested my head on his shoulder and Edward sighed. "I know you will, I was just making sure."

After a few seconds, I left Jacob to hug Bella. She gently wrapped her arms around me and held me.

"Mom?"

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry," tears began to form in my eyes. "I'm so sorry for what I said to you on the day I found out about all this. I don't hate you, I could never hate you. I was just angry and my anger was speaking for me that day, but either way, I shouldn't have said that to you. You're not a terrible mother, not in the slightest - I could have asked for a better mother-" Bella held my face in her hands and made me look at her?

"Renesmee, I know. You were upset and I understood why you said it. I even knew you were sorry the moment you said it, you just needed to let off steam. So, I understand and I'm not offended." she kissed me head. "I love you, more than anything. All I wanted was for you to be safe and not to worry." she wiped away my tears with her icy thumb. "Please don't cry, you'll only be gone a few days maximum and then you'll be home, we'll be together and everything will be normal, well, as normal as it can get for us."

I gave a small laugh and pulled away. "Okay," I sighed and Jacob took my hand. "I guess we have to go."

Jacob nodded and led me over to the car. He opened the passenger door for me and I slid in before he shut the door.

I looked around the interior of the car as he had a final few words with my parents outside. I couldn't believe that this was actually my car.

As I looked through the windscreen, I saw Bella and Jacob share a tight hug before he turned and opened the driver's door.

"Be careful, Jake." Bella whispered as he opened the door. He smiled at her.

"I always am, Bells. Don't worry, we'll be back in no time." and he shut the door.

As the engine purred, he looked at me and said. "Ready?"

I sighed and nodded. "As ready as I'm gonna get."

My parents backed away from the car and Edward went to flick the switch that opened the garage door. As it lifted, Jacob began to reverse out.

I waved to my parents as we drove away from them, getting further out of reach. I tired to fight back tears as we backed onto the road and I could see the rest of the house. The rest of my family were stood in various windows around the house, they watched us drive away and waved, I waved back. Even when they were gone I pressed my fingers to the window, where I could see the reflection of my home in the side mirror, stretching further away until it was eclipsed by the early morning darkness.

Jacob reached over and held my hand as we drove away, I tried to convince him that I was fine and flashed him a reassuring smile, but even that was I lie I couldn't convince him of.

It was a ten hour drive to the house in Mineral, Montana. In a way I was excited to go to a new place, but if it wasn't for the reason why I was staying here, I might have never lost that excitement.

As we hit narrow forest roads again, I felt as if we had returned home. But above us, the late morning sun beamed down on us in the blue sky - we were _definitely_ not in Forks any more. Through the trees on one side of the road, I looked down a hill and could see lake Missoula glistening below. Finally, we took a turn up a single track that took us up another hill to a large house, similar to our one in Forks.

It was light and airy and undoubtably stunning. The window were large and the entire place was just a modern glory. It didn't surprise me that my family were going to move here after Forks.

"Here it is," said Jacob as he stopped just outside the garage door, "Our temporary home. Not too different from Forks, huh?"

I forced a smile and shook my head. He detected straight away that my smile wasn't meant. He turned to me in his seat and took face in his hands.

"It's going to be okay, Renesmee and I'm not just saying that, I mean it."

"I know." I whispered and looked away at the house again. "I just- I need some time to get used to things. I mean it's a beautiful place and all, but, it's still not home. It's a safe house." I got out of the car then and looked back down the drive where along the horizon you could see hills and mountains for miles and miles, not to mention a few lakes.

Behind me, I heard the garage door open and I nearly flew out my skin. Jacob drove in and parked before getting out and taking out the suitcases.

"Shall we go inside?" he asked, approaching me from behind with suitcases in both hands and a bag under one arm. I nodded and looked away from the scenery as we went inside. As I stepped through the front door, I heard the garage door close again and that would be the last time my Aston Martin would see daylight again until we left this house.

As Jacob had a look round downstairs, he gave me some alone time to find a room for us to sleep in - not that it was very hard. The first room I found had an even better view of the mountains and lakes than what I did standing on the driveway. I stared out the window and pressed my forehead and gently glistening fingers on the warm glass and looked down at the shimmering lakes and softly swaying tree tops. Every hill my eyes crossed I imagined my house sitting on that hill. I imagined my room and this room sharing the same breathtaking view, being near each other, only a few heartbeats away. But there were no houses, only this one and a small wooden pier along the bay of the lake.

I turned my back and slid down the glass until I was sitting on the floor, I brought my knees up to my chest and rested my head on them. For a moment, I gently shut my eyes and then opened them, then they shut again for a moment and opened. The third time I shut them and opened them, I opened them to the soft red and orange haze of twilight.

I was on the bed now, in a curled up ball under the sheets. As I looked out the window now, I saw the red and orange sky fade into blackness as it stretch away from the mountain peak where the sun was slowly setting. As I tried to wake myself up slightly, Jacob suddenly walked through the door.

He smiled at me and slowly walked over. "Evening." he grinned as he lay down next to me.

"I fell asleep." I stated, sitting up a little. I winced at the pain from my cracked rib and lowered myself slightly.

"Careful-" he reached out for me to help support me?

I let out a small laugh. "I'm fine, Jacob, don't worry."

"I'm not surprised you fell asleep, it's been a long day." he kissed my head and moved closer to me so he could hold me in his arms. I nuzzled my head into his chest and held onto him with my hand that didn't have a broken wrist.

"So," I said, "What do we fill our days with when in a prison like this?"

He grinned, "I can think of a few things, but you're not really in the right condition so - there's a piano downstairs. You can play just one hand, right?"

"Jake, I have a broken wrist and a damaged rib, I'm not handicapped. Don't doubt my condition so much, it's offensive."

"I know, I know - I'd just rather be safe than sorry."

I grinned, "I know, and that's one of the things I love most about you." I kissed his cheek. As I was about to pull away he held my chin and positioned it so that he could kiss me. His lips gently pressed to mine and stayed there for a few seconds before he pulled back slightly. It was then I pushed my lips against his again, but with more force. We went on like that for a while until he slowly pushed me onto my back and he got on top of me. He kissed down, around my neck and along my shoulders and back up to my lips.

Minutes passed and his naked body hung over mine (although my breasts were covered up by the dressing for my ribs). I gently ran my finger tips around his face before his lips pushed against mine again. That night, we fell away together in to a passionate state of bliss and it was the first time a long while that's we'd done that. It was strange, having the house to ourselves, I was almost expecting another presence or a rude interruption from Emmett bursting through the door. But there was nothing, just us and the echoing of our hearts that pounded together.

Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

**Hope you enjoyed it!**

**Let me know what you think! Please Review!**

**And I'll try to update soon! :) x**


	19. Family, Revenge and a Fresh Start

**Okay, I don't usually do dedications or anything. But, my family helped to inspire this chapter. So, I would like to thank my husband, and our children, Sapphire, Tyler, Annabella, Alex, JJ, Cameron, Sophia, Bella, Sarah and Mia ^^**

**Oh! And I would also like to dedicate it to one of the greatest friends I have ever and will ever have, Tracy - without you... I wouldn't have been grinning the way I was whilst writing parts of this chapter :D**

**Anyway! Enjoy! :)**

**Family, Revenge and a Fresh Start**

WHEN I WOKE, I WASN'T IN MONTANA ANYMORE. I WAS IN MY OWN BEDROOM - but it wasn't my bedroom. It was a room I'd never seen before and yet it felt like home. I sat up in the bed and out the corner of my eyes, I saw movement where a door opened. The door was to a bathroom and Jacob stepped through it, his hair and body dripping wet with a towel wrapped around his waist. I watched for a moment as the drops of water fell perfectly around his muscled torso.

"Good morning, beautiful." he flashed me a brilliant white smile.

"H-hi." I said quietly and he walked past the bed to a walk-in wardrobe on the other side of the room. As he opened the wardrobe doors, the towel dropped from his waist as he stepped in. My heart skipped a beat and I looked away, around the room, around the bed and finally I just played with my fingers. I didn't know why I was embarrassed to look, but, there was something that was unusually open and relaxed about him. As I was looking away from where Jacob had last been standing, I stared at my fingers. On my left hand, was a ring, but it wasn't my engagement ring - it was a wedding ring.

What the hell happened last night?

I could only remember us sleeping together, not getting married.

He walked back out again, this time with clothes on.

He looked at me and smiled, but when he saw that something was troubling me. He came and sat on the edge of the bed.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"W-where are we?"

He frowned for a moment. "We're at home, in Montana."

"But- Montana isn't our home, Jake - its... It's just temporary."

"Ness, are you feeling alright?" he asked, putting his hand to my forehead. "We live in Montana, we moved away from Forks years ago."

I looked away from him - I was going crazy, I had to be.

"Seriously, Ness - are you oka-?" he was cut off by a baby crying in another room. My eyes grew wide.

"Wha-?"

"-Don't worry, I'll get it. You stay here and rest for a bit." he stroked my face with his thumb before standing and leaving the room.

Since when did we have a baby?

What the hell was wrong with me?

I started to panic. After a few minutes, Jacob walked back in the room, holding a toddler in his arms. A little girl. She had little red blotchy cheeks where she'd been crying and she rubbed her brown eyes with her little wrist because she was still tired.

And... She was beautiful. She was stunning. She was an angel.

"Maybe Sapphire can jog your memory a bit." he grinned and sat down on the bed. She straight away reached out her arms for me. At first I was hesitant. I was still trying to figure out what was going on. But, I took her.

As I sat her in my lap she snuggled up to me and clung onto my shirt. Without thinking, I stroked her hair, her delicate, soft, silky dark brown hair. Her hair was darker than mine, almost as black as Jacob's.

Then, she looked up at me. Her eyes were big and filled with the warmest brown I had ever seen. Suddenly, I wasn't bothered about everything that was happening and why it was happening. I just felt content. This little girl was mine... Ours and that was all that mattered to me. She smiled and rested her head against my chest whilst Jacob sat next to me, smiling at her.

"How're you feeling?" he asked, moving a hair from my face. I smiled at him, but then it faded.

"I... I don't really know. How should I be feeling?"

"Well," he sighed. "I'm hoping that maybe you remember who you are, where we are and who it is that you're holding."

"I'm Renesmee, we're in Montana-" then I looked at the little girl. "And this is... Our daughter?"

He smiled and nodded.

I smiled. "Our daughter... Sapphire."

"This is what you want." he stated in a new tone. I looked at him and frowned.

"What do you mean-?"

"A family. A new life, no worries. This is what you want."

"I want no worries, yes. But I don't think that I'm ready for a family, Jake-"

He smiled and let out a small laugh before putting and arm around me. "It's too late."

"Too late for what?"

He didn't answer me. Instead, he stood from the bed and walked out the room.

"Jake? Jacob - where are you going?" but he didn't appear. Then one by one, the room dripped away and faded into nothing. The door, the wallpaper, the furniture and last but not least, Sapphire was gone. Poof!

I tried to call her, but no sound came from my mouth. I frowned at the darkness before I saw a bright light. With the light rays, came a new scene. I was stood in a meadow, full of daisies, surrounded by the forest. I was kneeling and as I looked ahead, I saw some people on the other side. I walked towards them, the sun beating on my back.

Without warning, I felt a shield hit me. It was like a force where I couldn't walk across this invisible line.

I looked around, hoping to find my mother standing nearby, toying with me. But she was no where to be seen.

I frowned and then looked back at the people. I recognised them straight away. There was me and Jacob. Around us, a slightly older Sapphire was running around with a boy slightly younger than her and another little girl, the youngest one, was sitting on Renesmee's lap.

_Another_ two children?

They were talking, but I couldn't understand what they were saying. All I could hear was the screams and laughter of Sapphire and the little boy, as well as the gurgling of the little girl. Right now, Sapphire looked about ten, the little boy about six or seven and the little girl was a toddler.

And as I stood there, I had further visions. I saw the children being tucked in at night by their parents, I saw them at the beach, I saw the boy, when he was a little older and climbing a tree in the backyard.

I saw them grow up, I saw us having an even bigger family. I even saw Sapphire all grown up and having her own kids.

They were all just living...like a normal family.

They didn't have to worry about anything. No secrets, no revenge, no Lauren, no Volturi. Nothing.

To be honest, it looked as if they didn't even need to worry about what they were. There was no way that Jacob and I could have children that didn't inherit even just a bit of vampire genetics or the wolf gene. Not a chance.

But these three seemed... normal.

By the time I could see the family in the meadow again, they were gone, and so was the shield. The sun had disappeared and there was only dark, thick clouds in its place. The daisies were dead and all that was left was weak, thin, brown grass.

I stepped forward to where the family was and there was nothing there to say happiness has ever existed.

"It's too late." I heard a voice in front of me.

"It's too late." a voice echoed behind and to the left and right if me.

"I-it's too late for what? Why do you keep saying that?"

From behind the heavily shadowed trees, Lauren appeared with her platinum blonde curls falling perfectly around her waist. I flinched back and my shoulder hit something hard. I turned I saw Leonardo standing behind me. He grinned a grin that made me want to puke. I tried to step away but he grabbed my shoulders and pulled me towards him.

"Why are you running away from me?" he lifted one of his hands and stroked my face, I flinched away.

"Don't touch me." I growled, trying to get out of his grasp.

"But what if I want to touch you?" he asked, gripping me tighter. My stomach turned and I struggled more.

"Don't worry," Lauren suddenly hissed in my ear. "We won't bite."

"No, please-" I looked at Leonardo with tears in my eyes. "Please, Leonardo - I-I'm sorry-"

Lauren laughed humourlessly next to me. "You're sorry? Do you think sorry will bring him back?" she screeched.

"You know why I'm doing this-" she hissed in my ear. "I want revenge. You don't know how it feels to lose a loved one, Renesmee. But I'm planning on making you feel it." she grinned and ran away into the forest. A few minute later, she returned.

As her figure appeared from the shadowy woods, she dragged with her a large wolf.

"No!" I screamed as I fought away from Leonardo. "You monster!"

I started to cry and I saw her drag the dead, bloody, russet brown wolf behind her. She dropped his leg and his body collapsed to the ground.

"Jacob!" I cried as I fell to my knees at his side. I held onto his fur with one hand and stroked his face with my other.

"The death of the man you love-" she sighed. "Such a tragic loss." then she shrugged. "Oh well, as long as I still have my man, that's all that matters."

Before I could respond with a viper tongue, Leonardo pulled me to my feet and started to drag me away from Jacob's body.

"No!" I screamed as I fought against him. "Let me go!" tears were streaming down my face as the dead wolf stretched further and further away from me.

"Jacob!" I screamed his name once, I screamed it twice, I screamed for him so many times that I lost count. After a few moments, I felt myself shaking, or _being_ shook.

And then my eyes shot open, even though they had been open before.

My vision was hazy and I could feel a trickle of sweat down my neck. I looked around, gaining back my vision, and Jacob was looking over me, his face becoming more worried the more I started to see clearly.

He had his hand to my face and he stroked my cheek.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"I-I don't know." my voice was dry and croaky. "What happened?

"You had a bad dream. You started screaming - you were screaming my name, actually." then he frowned. "Do I even want to know what your dream was about?"

I shook my head. "No." then, I slowly sat up. We were still in Montana, but this was normal Montana, our safe house.

I sighed and leaned into him, he put his arm around me and held me. We sat like that for a while, sitting in nothing but silence, yet we were somehow having a conversation. My gift aside, we knew what the other one was thinking.

Finally, Jacob kissed my head and I looked up at him. "Do you wanna go downstairs?" he asked.

I shook my head. "No... I-I think I'll just have a shower." I slowly moved out of his arms and out of the bed. As I walked to the bathroom, I could feel the sweat drying on me.

I turned the shower on and stepped in, my clothes had already been removed the night before.

As I let my body soak in the steamy, hot water, I leant against one of the walls and gently shut my eyes. The water that fell turned into rain in my head, like the rain back in Forks. A torrential downpour, even. I stood there, my mind drifting away. After some time of being on my own, I felt a warm hand run down my arm and then hooked around my waist. I smiled as Jacob pulled me into him and I felt his lips gently press to mine. I smiled as I wrapped my arms around his next and he pushed me against the wall again. My lips broke away from his and my head turned slightly, so he continued with kissing up and down my neck.

"Jake?"

"Mm?" he mumbled through the kisses.

"Whilst we're here you- you're not going out going out patrolling at night, are you?"

He pulled away and frowned. "Of course not." he said. "There's no way I'm going to leave you here on your own."

I sighed and smiled weakly. "Do you think she'll find us?"

"Ness, can we not talk about this-"

"-_Do you think she'll find us_?"

He sighed and then looked me in the eyes, "I don't know if she will. But don't sit around this house, thinking that she will-"

"She's going to find me, Jake-"

"Dammit Renesmee!" he pushed himself off me and grabbed my face. "She _won't _find you, I won't let her find you or hurt you-"

"-But then she'll kill _you, _I can't handle that, I can barely handle this-"

"-What's _this_?"

"Being here, away from Forks, away from my family, away from everything that's happening, not _knowing_ what's happening. _That _is this."

"And what?" he sighed and moved closer to me, pressing me against the wall again. "I know you don't want to be here, I know that better than anyone, _I _don't want to be here - I want to be back at home, where everything is normal, everything is safe and happy and the _girl I love isn't being hunted_!" at that, he ripped the shower curtain open and barely closed it, but I saw him grab a towel and leave the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.

I slowly turned the shower off and stepped out, going to get a towel. As I wrapped the towel around me, I heard Jacob pacing, storming and slamming about in the next room. So I didn't open the door. For the first time, I was scared to. Instead, I locked it and slid down the door, crying silent tears so he couldn't hear me.

I should have known that he would lose patience with my worry at some point. Or maybe... Maybe it was because I was being unknowingly selfish.

I sighed and sniffed, grabbing a tissue.

The dream I had last night - Lauren had stated as long as she had her man, everything was fine. Was that what I was like too?

As long as I had Jacob... That was all that mattered?

That's how Lauren saw me, she really did see me that way - as a selfish, cold hearted bitch. That... Actually hurt.

I groaned and put my head in my hands.

"I'm such a terrible person." I whispered to myself. And I was. I'd told my loving, caring mother that I hated her and was too stubborn to apologise for it until a few months later. I called off my engagement with Jacob... For what? What point was I trying to prove exactly?

I might have had one at the time, but that point was worthless now, because it was stupid and it most probably wasn't worth the pain I caused.

After Jacob left the room, I waited a while before going into the bedroom. There, I got dressed and slowly dried my hair.

About an hour later, I stood at the top of the stairs and could hear Jacob busying himself with things downstairs.

Gently, I stepped down the stairs. By the time I reached the bottom, Jacob was sitting in the living room on the couch, with his head in his hands.

I sighed quietly and walked over there, sitting beside him. He didn't move when I sat. So, after a while I sighed and went to get up, as I did, he grabbed my hand and looked up at me with pain filling his eyes.

"Please don't leave me." he whispered.

I watched him for a while and then I sat beside him and wrapped my arms around him, resting my head on his shoulder. "Never."

He wrapped his arms around me before pulling me onto his lap and holding me tight. Then, I rested my forehead against his.

"I'm sorry I snapped at you." he said, stroking my back. "I shouldn't have- you're scared and fragile and my snapping at you didn't help anything, only made it worse-"

I sighed. "-No. I'm sorry... For everything. Ever since I found out that Lauren was still alive it's turned me into a complete bitch, I've pushed away some of the closest people to me. I've pushed them away without even considering how what I'm doing makes them feel. I've been horrible to my mother, I told her I hated her and was just too damn stubborn to apologise for it." then I looked at him and tears started to fill my eyes. "And I broke the heart of the man I love, with nothing to prove to back up my stupid decisions. What you did... Was wrong, yes. You should have told me that she was still alive, but that didn't give me the right to do something like that to you. I know that what you did, you did because you love me and because you care about me. You were wrong for what you did, but it was nothing compared to what I did. I shouldn't have broken up with you, Jake. I'm so sorry." tears started to fall from my eyes and I looked away from him, hiding my tears on his shoulder.

He stroked my hair and held me tight against him. Then he whispered in my ear, "I love you, Renesmee. No matter what happens or what you do, I will never stop loving you. Never forget that, okay?"

I pulled my head back and blinked out the last few tears before nodding. I tucked my hair behind my ear and as I did, he held the back of my head and pushed my lips to his. After a few seconds, I pulled back and smiled at him. With a few fingers, I stroked his face and his lips and as he spoke my fingers fell into his mouth. I laughed and pulled them out.

He grinned and tried to speak again. "I think, what we need is a fresh start." he declared.

I raised my eyebrows. "A fresh start?"

"All you need to do is say "yes"."

I frowned at him, unsure of what exactly he was saying. "Jake, what are you-?"

"Marry me." he said. "Say "yes" to marrying me."

After a moment I smiled and then kissed him passionately. "Yes." I whispered in his ear.

"Good, this time... Try not to give the ring back, okay?" he grinned.

"I won't, I promise. You won't be getting it back, trust me."

"That's what I wanted to hear." and he kissed me again. "So, what were you screaming about in your dream?"

I sighed and looked at him, debating on whether or not to share. After a few moments, I decided to and put my hand to his face, projecting what had happened. Initially, I had wanted to only show him what happened towards the end of the dream, where I stood with Lauren and Leonardo in the meadow. But, I accidentally showed him everything that happened before then, with Sapphire and the children.

I finally pulled my hand away from his face, cupping it in my lap. A few moments of silence dawned between us and he finally tightened his arms around me and pulled me closer.

"Nothing's going to happen, Ness. I promise." he kissed my shoulder and smiled at me. I

rested my head against his and linked our hands together.

"Although, the family part was kind of strange." he added.

"I know." I sighed. "I think it was because I miss my family."

"You miss your family, so you make up another one." he grinned, but after a few moments he went serious. "What did they mean when they kept saying "It's too late."?" he asked. I shrugged.

"Beats me. It was weird though. I mean, they kept repeating it... It's too late for what? Too late to save my family or too late to apply for college?" I sighed and groaned as I sat up straight.

"I don't know. It probably didn't mean anything, Renesmee. You're under a lot of stress at the moment and its bound to play with your head."

I nodded and then stood. "So, what are we going to do today?"

"I don't know. We can't leave the house... So we're pretty limited." he then stood and wrapped an arm around my waist and held my face with his other hand. "I guess we'll have to be creative."

At that, he pulled my lips to his and I wrapped my arms around his neck. Eventually, he lifted me into his arms and carried me upstairs to the bedroom, kicking the door shut behind him.

I dragged him down onto the bed and he climbed on top of me kissed my lips, face, neck, shoulders and eventually kissed his way down my body.

An hour or so later, I found myself laying next to Jacob, him asleep with exhaustion and me watching him sleep. I grinned and gently brushed my fingers against his cheek. I was glad to finally see him sleep, I didn't know when he last had sleep. I didn't even know if he slept last night or if he was looking out whilst I slept. As I lay on my side with my head resting against my knuckles, Jacob, despite the sleep, kept his hand around my waist and close to him. So, there was no chance of me leaving the bed, let alone the room. But, I didn't really mind. I was just recently having an urge to call home to see how everything was going, but, I suppose with me not there, they had no reason to keep returning home.

That was something that kept irritating me. Everything was perfect here, pure and utter bliss. It almost made me forget about everything that was happening outside this house.

But I couldn't forget.

I watched the trees sway outside the window and sighed.

**Okay, hoped you enjoyed it! :)**

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	20. The Purple Flame

******Okay, I know, I know it's been FOREVER since I've updated and I'm really sorry for that. I've been distracted and stuck with Last Quarter so, it's taken a while :(**

**Again, really, really sorry guys!**

**Enjoy! :)**

**The Purple Flame**

IT HAD BEEN A WEEK SINCE WE LEFT FORKS AND ARRIVED AT THIS SAFE HOUSE IN Montana – so much for a few days max. With Jacob and I being unable to leave the house in case Lauren tracked our scent, we were very limited on entertainment. The TV was enjoyable for about ten minutes, Jacob managed to enjoy it for thirty but that was about it. To fill the time, we would watch TV, I would play the piano, we played Chess a couple of times, but Jacob was hopeless, so we gave up. I went into the garage to clean my car – not that it was dirty. Sometimes we would feed ourselves, just because we were bored. Because we weren't running around outside or even going outside, I found myself sleeping on the couch a lot. During the time we weren't eating, watching, playing, cleaning and I was sleeping – the time was filled with sex. That also happened a lot, more than it probably should. But, I suppose when we're in the house together, practically locked in and have nothing else to do – certain chemicals start to bubble inside me. We were probably at it a good five or six times a day – Surely that's 'honeymoon' standards, not 'being trapped in a safe house' standards.

As we moved on into the second week, I still hadn't heard anything from my parents, which meant one of three things – they hadn't found Lauren yet, things were going good and I didn't need to worry or they'd all been killed and so no one _could_ call me. I tried to eliminate the third one from my head.

I found myself thinking about how they were getting on as I was lying on a lounger in one of the sitting rooms, alone and about to sleep again.

As my eyes shut and the soft hush of gently swaying trees outside soothed me to sleep – Jacob came into the room.

"Sleeping _again_?" he asked, coming to sit next to me.

"I'm tired." I told him, my eyes still shut.

"You always seem to be tired. Am I getting too much for you?"

I shook my head. "No, I'm just tired – what's so wrong about that?"

"What's wrong with it is that you're asleep more than you're awake. You slept for nearly thirteen hours last night. You've been out of bed for two hours and already you're dozing off again. What's wrong with you? Are you sick?"

I let out a long sigh, my voice sounding even dozier. "I'm not sick… I'm just tired."

He sighed and lifted me into his arms, taking me upstairs.

"Jake… Not now, please… I'm too sleepy."

"I'm not bringing you up here for sex, Renesmee... I'm bringing you up here because a bed is much comfier than a lounger." He said, resting my body on the bed. He then pulled a fur blanket from the arm chair in the corner of the room and spread it out over my body.

He kissed my head and left the room again. When he left, I started to think about what he had been saying earlier. It _is_ a little strange that I'm asleep more than I'm awake; I'm never usually like that, even when I am really bored,

Maybe I needed more blood. Noon wasn't for a few hours yet, but a vampire doesn't need to feed at certain times of the day.

So, I moved the blanket and got up. I felt slightly dizzy when I stood properly and had to use my nightstand for support, but after a few seconds, I started for the door and managed to walk properly.

I gently walked down the stairs, taking my time on each step before I reached the bottom. Then Jacob appeared.

"I thought you were going to sleep?" he asked.

"I was… But I figured that maybe some blood will give me energy and will keep me awake for more than five minutes."

After that, I wandered into the kitchen and he followed me. I leant against the counter with a bag of blood in my hand and taking a few sips at a time.

"Feel any better?" he asked, leaning against the counter opposite me.

I shrugged, "Indifferent, really." As I took another gulp, I made a decision on how the blood was making me feel – worse. I flew to the sink and vomit shot up and out of my mouth.

Now my body was so bored it was making me vomit. The vomit was bloody, as expected and I felt even weaker when it finally stopped. Jacob held me before I fell because of how little energy I now had.

He sighed and lifted me up, carrying me over to the couch.

"Alright," he said, crouching down next to me. "Something's wrong, you're not over worrying yourself are you?"

I gently sat up and sighed "No, Jake, seriously, I'm fine-" I got distracted by a drop on my hand, I looked down to find a single drop of blood, shortly followed by another and then another. My eyes grew wide and I looked at Jacob.

"Er… Jake?"

He also had the same worried look in his eyes. "Your nose is bleeding, hold on lemme get you some tissue." He stood and quickly left for the kitchen; I lifted the back of my hand to my nose and saw the blood that started to gush out.

What the hell was wrong with me?

When he came back with a box of tissues, I took a few and held them to my nose. The blood still managed to seep through the tissue and leaving a few drops to stain my jeans.

"I think I better call Carlisle-"

"-No!" I grabbed him as he went to turn away. "Don't, Jake, it's nothing-"

"Renesmee, listen to yourself, this isn't nothing. I've been holding off calling home for days now but this is the last straw. The sleeping, the vomiting, the nose bleeds.. Something is wrong with you and I'm not just going to leave it and wait for you to get worse, understood?"

I dropped my hand and nodded. I had pissed him off a little… Well, he always did when I tried to interfere with him protection. He watched me for a few moments, waiting for me to talk back. But my silence made him stand and walk out the room to grab a phone.

After a while, the bleeding slowed down and eventually stopped so I took the tissue away from my nose. I brought my knees up to my chest and stared at the blood red tissues screwed up on the coffee table next to the couch.

Had to admit, I had noticed changes in Jacob over the past few days. He'd become more protective than usual, as if that was possible. But he had also become more easily frustrated and I think that had affected both of us. Although it was supposed to be safe, being away from Forks was just causing us more frustration. It wasn't such a safer option.

"-Okay, will do." Jacob came back into the room. "-thanks Carlisle-"

My head suddenly felt warm, that warmth turned to burning and that burning turned to eye-watering pain. Everything went black but I could still hear Jacob's voice as he rushed to my side… I was blinded by pain, literally.

"Jacob-!" I cried for him, though I couldn't see him.

A blurring flash shot threw my vision and I saw trees, lots of trees. I was in the forest. My head was still throbbing but I was distracted by this sudden mirage. Everything turned to light speed then as I bolted through the forest.

In the space of a second, Jacob was facing me and we were sitting in the living room of our safe house. The throbbing in my head died down and I felt like I'd suddenly returned to earth.

"Ness?" Jacob's hands were feeling around my face, trying to get my eyes to focus on him.

Finally my eyes closed in on him. "Jake?"

A sigh of relief passed his lips and he pulled me into his arms and held me close to him. He kissed my head.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

I nodded. "I-I think so.."

"What happened?"

"I don't know." I said quietly. "I-I just saw the forest and then I was running and then I was here again."

He narrowed his eyes and stroked my back. "It's okay, I won't let anything else happen to you."

"How are they?" I asked.

"They're fine, but they're not having any luck with catching that blonde vamp. They've been close a few times but, she's crafty – I'll give her that."

"She's a nasty piece of work, Jake. We've always known that and now that she has just that one single goal of killing me on her mind – she'll stop at nothing to accomplish it."

He pulled me away from him for a moment and looked at me with his dark eyes before stroking my face.

"Ness, I am so, so sorry that you have to go through with this. It isn't fair and I'm sorry. You don't deserve any of this-"

"Jacob, if I've learned anything in my life it's that every action has a consequence. I killed the man she loved, the consequence of that and her remaining alive is that she was gonna come after me. Besides, it's not like she has anything better to do."

He didn't comment, he just pulled me back and held me tight.

That night, the rain came for us. Jacob fell asleep before me and as I lay there, curled up in his arms, I felt at peace. With my eyes shut, inhaling his scent, feeling his warmth and hearing the pats of rain that hit the window – I felt at home. And I had never missed home so much before.

As the night stretched on, Jacob's grip on me tightened and loosened repeatedly. It was about 2am when I started to feel rough again. My head started to throb but my vision never changed, but eventually it hurt so much I was on the verge of throwing up. So, carefully, I shimmied out of Jacob's hold and quickly tiptoed into the bathroom, shutting the door behind me.

I sat myself next to the toilet and waited there, taking deep breathes. Time stretched on as I sat next to that toilet, and I watched out the window as the rain turned heavy to light to heavy to light again.

The sick feeling never went away, but I never actually threw up.

I'd been sitting there for nearly two hours when I finally got up. Suddenly, getting up felt like the worst thing for me to do. As I rose to my feet, I lost control of my legs, they were so weak that I collapsed and hit my head on the edge of the toilet.

As I lay on the cold tiles, moaning whilst disorientated I hoped Jacob would have heard it and come to help me up seeing as I was too damn weak to do anything. I hadn't even thrown up, so I didn't understand how I could feel like this.

"Jake?" I whimpered, but my voice was quiet.

"Jacob?" I called, a little louder.

But there was still no response.

I frowned and with all the strength I could gather, I pushed myself off the floor and crawled over to the door. I lifted my shaking hand to open it and when I did, I found the bed empty.

"Jacob?" my heart started to race. Where was he?

Maybe he had heard me collapse and was going to call Carlisle again, this time making him come to Montana to help me.

"Jake!" I yelled as loud as I could. I needed him so badly and he was nowhere to be seen.

He hadn't left me, had he?

No, he said he would never leave me. He'd promise my parents, my family that he would never leave this house until it was safe.

"Jacob!" I called again, tears forming. "Jake, please I need you-!" Something caught in my throat and I couldn't stop coughing after that.

I'd been under the weather on a few occasions, but never this bad. I hadn't even known anyone to have it this bad. I started to crawl for the bed with the little energy I had, maybe sleep would help. But with no knowledge of Jacob's whereabouts, I was going to struggle more to sleep than I would just trying to reach the bed.

I returned to the laws of baby travel and slowly crawled back to bed. I could just imagine how small and pathetic I must have looked.

Half way there and something happened. I suddenly didn't feel like I was the only one there. Just as I turned my head a great force hit my stomach and blew me back onto my back, coughing and fighting for air as I recovered from being winded.

"I knew I could weaken you easily." I heard the familiar, menacing voice come from the silhouette that stood over me, the light from the bathroom tinted the edges of her curly platinum blonde hair.

Lauren.

I was in too much pain to talk, so she continued. "Y'know, I think I've wasted time in a way. I was planning on just murdering people you care about, one by one." She laughed humourlessly. "Hell, at first I wasn't even going to kill you, just kill everything around you and that's important to you. I was going to spare your life, only to make it a living hell. You would be left alone, no family or friends… No wolf boy. Nothing. I only hoped, for your sake, that you enjoyed your own company. Because that's all you were going to have."

I started to recover and managed to prop myself up on my elbows, still looking up at her.

"But," she continued. "I realised that, it doesn't matter how much fun that first idea would be. The fact is, I just couldn't bear to let you live. Why should I spare you?"

In that moment, I noticed something. I noticed how much stronger I was now. Suddenly, I didn't feel weak anymore.

So, I finally stood up. "Lauren, how many time do I need to tell you he didn't love you-?"

She shot her fist to my face, sending me over the other side of the bed before I could finish. I landed with a loud thud, but didn't dwell over it, instead, I got to my feet.

"Stop being so pathetic-" but again, before I could finish, she had her claw-like nails tight around my neck before I could say anything else.

"Don't you _dare_ say anything." She spat. "No one's here to save you now. Do you _really_ want to piss me off more than you already have?"

When I remained silent, she laughed. "I didn't think so-" I raised my knees and kicked her in the stomach, sending her flying back and causing me to drop to the floor. I reassembled myself quickly and she rose slowly on the other side of the room. And, as if she were a chameleon, her blonde curls faded into coppery brown curls and her red eyes turned brown as she morphed into me.

Oh, smooth move.

She grinned maliciously at me, "I think I'm in the safe zone now. You kill me; you're going down with me."

At that moment, the dance began. We were two opposites in that room. She treated this fight like a little fight in the playground, because no matter what, she was safe. I couldn't kill her or else I would die too and if I died then she would just phase back to her normal self. On the other hand, I knew this was the ultimate fight. There would be no more after this. There was no more fleeing or dodging or talking our way out of it.

This was it.

One of us were going to die to night.

And it wasn't going to be me.

I flew at her then and as I pinned her to the wall, she grabbed my arms and swing me round into the wall. I fell to the ground and she picked me up, only to throw me at the window. I heard it crack but it didn't break.

She kicked me several times in the stomach and when she paused for only a split second that gave me enough time to fly at her throat and start attacking back. With every punch I threw and every bite I made, I felt it on my own skin, but I didn't care, as long as she was somehow getting hurt, that was all that mattered to me.

She tried to grab my arms again to throw me and as she tried, I threw her instead, this time, the glass smashed as she fell. Then she disappeared under the shattered glass and I heard a thud as she hit the floor outside.

Normally, I would have taken that opportunity to hide, but was too angry and determined to end this. So, I jumped out the window after her. As I landed on her, I started to throw the punches again.

Like a rolling tumbleweed, we flipped and rolled and twisted, bearing our teeth at each other when we weren't biting. Finally, she pulled me up and pinned me to a tree, hitting me constantly in the stomach to the point where I wanted to throw up.

"Stop it!" I screamed at her, but my plea went over her head and if anything, she only did it more.

Finally, she dropped me like a rag doll and started to take a few steps back as she watched her enemy whimper and shake and probably die from severe internal bleeding. What if Jacob was like this somewhere out there, what if I was an orphan now? I knew they were fine earlier, but were they still?

I felt tears sting the open wounds on my cheeks, and the pain of it only made me cry more.

I looked at her as she grinned.

"I don't know why I wanted to make this so easy. I wanted to get you when you were weak, and I used to think that would have been once I took away all your protective forces and, most of all, took away your reason for existence. In fact, I thought by then you would be begging me to kill you, to put you out your misery." She laughed and crouched down to look at me. "Do you know something that I discovered, Renesmee?"

I couldn't respond to anything she said, only stare at her for as long as my eyes could cope.

"I discovered I have other elements to my gift too. Something, I'll let you in one seeing as, y'know, I doubt you'll be alive much longer. When I'm you, I can control you too, isn't that cool?"

She giggled and stoop up straight walking away from me. I narrowed my eyes at her then. She could control me?

Of course!

The answer has been right there the whole time, maybe I would have realised it if my family had let me join them in the hunt to find me. I can control Lauren, she may be in my form, but I could still control her.

I stared at her then and using all my mental power, I did something I should have done a long time ago.

The best part was, she didn't even see it. She didn't notice her brown curls return to her platinum blonde locks or how her height went from mine back to her tall figure.

She hadn't even noticed the change, but she continued.

"Okay, enough foolin' around-"she turned on her heel and looked down at me. "-time to finish you off." Just as she was about to bolt for me, a blur flashed past and she disappeared.

Normally, I would have panicked. But I could feel myself fading fast. My vision was going hazy and darkening. I blacked out a few times. Every time I opened my eyes, I saw something new. First Lauren was gone, then I saw some silhouettes take her apart and her golden locks were made filthy in the dirt and her head fell to the floor, then there was a purple flame. After that, the silhouettes stood before me and one carried me away from the house, into the forest.

That was the last time I opened my eyes before everything went dark and stayed that way.

**Hope you enjoyed it!**

**Let me know what you think :)**

**And I'll update soon!**


	21. Adventures

**Thank you so much for your reviews guys :) Here's the next chapter**

**Enjoy! :)**

**Adventures**

THE SWEET, BLISSFUL STATE OF BLACKING OUT WAS COMING TO AN END AS I STARTED TO become aware of the strength of the physical pain I was in. Although I didn't like being trapped in darkness, I was thankful that it held no pain.

I woke with a soft groan from the pain. Voices both hushed and panicked came from all sorts of directions. Soon I could feel my arms being touched by all sorts of skin, hot, cold, normal, smooth and soft.

My eyes gently opened and everything was still hazy. But I smiled as I inhaled the scent of my bed sheets and the scent of the vampires around. I knew, without even being able to see that I was in my room, at home, in Forks, finally.

"Renesmee?" I heard my mother's voice and her pale, blurry face blocked the rest of my room as her cold hand stroked my face. Her blur was beautiful and it sent warmth through me that she was okay. It felt like I hadn't seen her in so long.

I couldn't properly form words; I think I was under some kind of anaesthetic.

"Renesmee, can you hear me?" she asked and I slowly nodded, making some sort of noise that implied I could.

They talked simple words to me at first, until I could properly talk and see. When I could finally see the detail of my room, every drop of paint, every bit of dust, everything – I felt like I'd woken in a dream. These past couple of weeks, though it had been nice to spend that time solely with Jacob, I had never craved home so much before. It turned out there were more in there than just my family. Claire, Abi and Eli were at the foot of my bed, I saw Seth and Embry and I was sure Quil was there, but of course, the only wolf I was looking for was Jacob. And there he was at my bedside.

I was shocked when I did see him. His eyes barely held my gaze when I noticed the thick layer of bandages wrapped around his chest. My eyes grew wide.

"W-what happened to you?" I went to moved closer to him and found that was a huge mistake. I yelped as I moved and started to groan as the pain gently eased away when I was still again.

"Try not to move, Renesmee." Said Carlisle, he reached forward and pulled back my bed sheets to reveal my black and blue body, I had new bandages wrapped around my ribs and I had various patches of bandages up my arms. "Your battle with Lauren wasn't necessarily a walk through. She beat you up quite badly. You're covered in bruises-" he pointed to the bandages on my arms. "-Those are from all the bite marks she left. You're lucky she didn't inject you with venom, which is surprising since you have about ten bite marks." Then he turned his attention to my ribs. "Your ribs were still recovering from when you fell down the stairs but I'm afraid the strength of the hit Lauren threw at you, she managed to break two ribs. You've very lucky, had she have hit you anymore, it would have caused a puncher to a lung, if not both."

I rested my head back and sighed. "So, I'm in tip top shape?"

"You even look worse than me." Said Claire from the end of the bed. I laughed and looked at her.

"Thanks Claire, don't you think I've endured enough punching for one lifetime?" I chuckled. "Way to give me that final blow."

She chuckled and sat down on the edge of the bed. "Can I be the first to say well done?"

I groaned. "I don't need a lecture and I don't need a sarcastic congradulations right now, Claire."

"I wasn't going to, I mean it."

"What?"

"Okay, so you weren't the one to rip her apart and burn her, but you were the one to stop her from shifting into anyone. If you hadn't done that, it wouldn't have been possible to kill her."

I scoffed. "It was so obvious, and I missed it every time until it was nearly too late."

"_Nearly_," said Bella. "But not too late." She softly kissed my head.

I smiled as her lips pressed my forehead and looked to Carlisle and Esme.

"Sorry about the window damage." I said. "It was my fault; I threw her out the window."

Esme smiled. "Don't worry about it, sweetheart. We probably won't ever live there anyway. It was just a safe house."

I nodded. "Okay."

The days that followed, I was bedridden and generally I was in too much pain to move any part of my body. It was hard to be optimistic at times, my body just didn't seem like it was improving, only weakening. I wanted to get out of bed and walk around the house, maybe go for a run, staying in this bed was just too painful. Jacob stayed with me day and night, except from one night when I told him he should go home and see Billy, just so he knew that he was okay. After a long debate about it, he left. I was oddly okay with being alone.

That was my first night alone sing Lauren's death and this time, it was official, there was no lies about her death or secrets – it had happened and I had seen it happen in between blackouts.

The following Sunday, Carlisle came to my room to remove the bandages on my arms.

"They seem to be healing nicely." He said as he removed the last bandage. I looked down at my arms in disgust as I saw the bruises that surrounded the red bite marks on my arms.

"Will they scar?" I asked.

"A few of the deeper ones might, like those-"he pointed to a couple of bite marks on my shoulder that were considerably larger and redder than the others. "-The other will fade through time, don't worry." He stroked my cheek with his thumb for a second before throwing the last bandage into a bowl.

I gently laid back in my bed and sunk under the covers.

"How does it feel to move now?" he asked. "Do you feel any pain?"

I shook my head, "No, it feels okay. Other than when I feel pressure against my skin.

He nodded, "That's understandable. Well, to me it looks like you're well on your way to recovery."

I smiled. "Thanks Carlisle."

"My pleasure." Just as he picked up the bowl and was about to leave, I stopped him.

"Carlisle?"

He turned and smiled handsomely. "Yes?"

"Lauren told me how she could control me when she was me… But, I don't really understand what she meant by that."

He sighed and sat down on the edge of my bed. "I have a theory about that."

"Well, what is it?"

"Another element to Lauren's gift is that she is able to obtain certain parts of that vampires gift, if they have one. For example, if she were to shift into your father, then she would be able to hear people's thoughts, though there would still be a drawback – which could be that she can't hear thoughts from long distances. You have an extremely power gift, Renesmee and it's a gift that is only wonderful when placed in pure hands."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you power is only truly a gift when given to the right person. You are a good person, though you make mistakes, you still have a kind heart and so therefore your gift is only used for good. Whereas, if something as powerful as mind control was put in the hands of someone far less pure, Lauren for example, its then when the gift becomes a curse, it becomes dangerous as its possessor will act carelessly."

"Lauren used it for personal reasons.."

"Lauren used it to assist her in getting revenge." He stood. "She also used it against you, to weaken you."

I scoffed. "She used my strength against me to make me weak."

"Exactly. She was the one who made you feel so ill and weak, because she walked in your skin most of the time and she knew where to find you, she just wanted to torment you some more before weakening you and finally, coming to kill you."

"Great." I mumbled.

"But, you don't have to worry about that anymore. I speak no lie now when I say that Lauren is gone. She's finally with her precious Leonardo."

I chuckled darkly. "I now pronounce you damned and wife."

In early January they finally found Tracy, the real Tracy. She was found on the top floor in a block of deserted apartments. My family offered to help her but she was determined to go her own way – she just wanted to get out of America and back to India which we finally let her do. After that things were quiet and normal… it was a strange feeling. I'd almost forgotten what normal felt like. Alice had began to hint questions about the wedding again, all of which I dodged in every possible way.

"I keep thinking I'm going to wake up one day in a wedding dress with Alice pushing me down the aisle." I told Jacob as we sat on a cliff edge in La Push in early February. He chuckled and pulled me into his arms.

"I can't blame her for wanting this wedding so badly; I can't wait to marry you." He kissed the back of my head and I leaned into his shoulder.

"Hey, did you ever figure out what those dreams meant the ones you had in Montana?" he asked.

I shook my head. "Not a clue, I think it was just my brain freaking out because of stress, I wouldn't worry about it. I mean they kept saying something was too late. Everything's fine now, there's just you and me and no Lauren, no secrets, nothing. I want to enjoy that now."

He smiled and kissed me. "Enjoy it before the next adventure comes around."

**Okay, so technically this was the last chapter though there is an epilogue to come just thought I would mention that this epilogue links to the final story in this series - Half Moon :)**

**Anyway, hope you enjoyed it! Please review and let me know what you think**

**I'll update with the epilogue very soon :)**


	22. Epilogue: The Tale of Leonardo

**Okay, this is the final chapter of Last Quarter! :)**

**This chapter links to the next story, Half Moon, so pay attention! :D**

**Enjoy!**

**EPILOGUE:**

**The Tale of Leonardo**

England, 1839

One night, I had been to collect my drunk father from a brothel. The streets had recently become a dangerous place to walk alone at night and a drunken idiot was the perfect victim for whatever was lurking in the dark alleys. So, I walked as I dragged my staggering father up the narrow, pebbly street with his arm around my shoulder for support whilst bellowing out the words to 'Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-re'  
>"<em>Just the kind you'd like to hold, just the kind of sport I'm told<em>!"  
>"Father, quiet!" I hushed him, dragging up his weight. But he completely ignored me and only sang, or roared, louder.<br>Suddenly, a pair of shutters burst open on the second floor of a terraced house just down the street and a red headed woman, about middle aged with tight curls and large breasts threw her upper half out the window.  
>"Oi!" she shrieked. "Shut ya' trap, ya noisy bastard!"<br>My father lazily threw his hand in her direction.  
>"Oh shu'up you old tart-!"<br>"Father!" but he continued.  
>"Why don't you get ya lazy arse out of bed and back in the whore house?"<br>My eyes grew wide and I looked up at her.  
>"Madam, I am so, so sorry... My father - he's very drunk."<br>"Drunk?" she hollered. "Pfft, he's bloody pissed out of his head he is. Drunk the whole pub dry? Wouldn't surprise me if the wretched stuff killed him."  
>This woman, wasn't helping. By now, my father was still yelling abuse at the woman but they weren't actual comprehensible words, it was just slur and noises, with a phlegmy grunt thrown in.<br>The woman's words also became just shrieks and hollers. I was just relived that no one else decided to fly their shutters open and join in.  
>As we turned down towards the park, my father finally quieted down and managed to talk with relatively normal words.<br>"Don't marry a tart like that, son." he said, trying to walk on his own. "You-you, you, you marry a sweet girl... Whatever you do... Don't marry a whore. We've got enough diseases going around as it is... The last thing you need is to sleep with a whore and find out that if you want to live then you need to chop ya dick off. True story, my son."  
>I sighed and shook my head. "Father, I wish you would stop talking about women like that."<br>"Like what?"  
>"Like.. Like... "I sighed. "Like calling them all whores. They're not father. They're doing it for the money... Isn't that why everyone works? I'm pretty sure they don't enjoy sleeping with loads of people-"<br>"-Of course they do... Christ almighty they do." then he looked at me. "How old are you?"  
>"I'm twenty six, father."<br>"Twenty six?" he yelled. "Bloody hell, and why haven't you found yourself a girl yet?"  
>"Because, father, I've told you, I want to get a good job first."<br>"You wanna get a good job? Come down to the brothel with your old man, the girls may be scummy, but they give good jobs." he winked at me and managed to walk into a lamppost. After then cursing the lamppost for being in his way, he continued to stagger along the dark street.  
>"You know that's not what I mean-"<br>"Why are you so worked up on getting a stupid job? Just get the bare minimum to help you through and then get out there-"  
>"Why are you so determined for me to have a wife?"<br>"Because... Y'know.. I don't know how much longer I got in me. I could kick the bucket next week and it'd be nice to have some grandchildren before I die."  
>I didn't say anything, I just studied him for a long moment. "You know you are terrible at lying, don't you?"<br>He sighed. "I'm just worried about you."  
>"Why?"<br>"Because... You're nearly thirty and you're still not married. Christ, you're still a virgin!"  
>"So?"<br>"So!" he stopped at came closer to me, his voice low and the stench of alcohol rolling off each word. "I don't want people thinking that my son is into something different... I don't want them thinking my son is a fan of his own."  
>"You mean... Men? You're afraid of me preferring men over women?"<br>"Shh!" he snapped. "Yes."  
>I grinned as I continued walking. "I can assure you, you have nothing to worry about, father-"<br>"-Oh yeah? Prove it-" just then, a blur flashed between us and my father was no longer standing next to me.  
>My eyes grew wide and I turned around, my eyes darting everywhere to find him. "Father?"<br>There was no response.  
>"Father?" I called again, a little louder.<br>After a long stretch of silence, there was suddenly a blood cuddling cry from down the street, and I could hear the hoarseness of the cry meant that it was my father. I ran as fast as I could, down the street. The holes in the soles of my shoes picking up water form every puddle I stamped in.  
>"Father!" I yelled and stumbled into an alleyway to find my father pinned to the wall, his head drooping to the side with vacant eyes. Then, I saw the blood trickling from his neck.<br>"N-no.." I whimpered. Then, I looked at my fathers murderer. He was a tall man with thick, black hair tied up behind his head and thin moustache covered just below his nose. He was a hideous pale and I felt myself turn pale just looking at him. He dropped my father's dead body and it slumped against the wall. The man turned to me and grinned.  
>"You'll do perfectly." then, he grabbed my throat and pinned my against the opposite wall.<br>I kept kicking and throwing aimless punched and managed to miss every time.  
>"Don't squirm." he ordered. The hostility in his voice frightened me and practically paralysed me. "Good boy. Now, you're going to feel a little bit of a pinch and then, you'll fall asleep." he grinned. "I'll see you in the other side." and, before I could react, his mouth latched onto my neck and I felt his teeth cut into me like razors. I cried out as he pulled away, then he dropped me to the ground. My body shook and trembled in agony. It wasn't the pain from my neck, it was pain... Everywhere. Like blood. It was like my blood had burned to some kind of acid and it was burning everything away inside me. Someone had ignited a blaze in my heart and it burned and spat until there was nothing there.<br>... It was the night my life changed.

When I woke, the pain was gone. In fact, I felt somewhat numb. I couldn't feel anything, I couldn't feel my pulse, my heart... Nothing. I opened my eyes and found my self in a dusty, run down bed and breakfast bedroom. It was small and dark, the tatty, maroon curtains were drawn with one of them having a tear in that let in some day light. It was almost blinding to look at it, even if it wasn't much.  
>I sat up and looked down at the groaning and squeaking bed I was sitting on. Then, I looked down at my trousers... They were so... Clean. New and fresh. My shoes were tatted with holes in them and I worse a white shirt underneath a rich, black waistcoat.<br>These weren't my clothes... I could never afford anything like this. Then, I looked up at the mirror in front of me to see what I looked like and I flinches away from the blood red eyes that stared at me from the mirror.  
>"W-what is wrong with me?" I touched my face and it was cold... Ice cold. My skin was normally quiet pale, but now, it was sickening pale. Like I had no blood.<br>But... Looking closer into the mirror, although I felt strange... I was, without sounding conceited... I was very, very beautiful.  
>"Good morning." I heard a man's voice, and when a figure appeared in the door way, I saw the man who had been with me last night in the alley.<br>"What have you done to me?"  
>He held his hands up. "Relax, my boy. I have merely made you... Inhuman."<br>I narrowed my eyes. "Inhuman?" I repeated. "What is that supposed to me."  
>"You, are a vampire." then he grinned and sat on the bed.<br>"I'm a what?"  
>"A vampire. From now on you feed off blood, you're pale and cold because you have bloo-"<br>"-No, I know what a vampire is. I just... I can't believed that I am one. I didn't think they existed."  
>He chucked darkly and looked away from me and his eyes fell on the cracked wall. "To humans, we do not exist... Until we are drinking from them."<br>I moved away from him. "W-who are you?"  
>"Oh. Sorry... How rude of me." he held out his hand. "Laserek, the first. And you are?"<br>"Leonadro De Luca... The first."  
>"Oh, my, my... Signore Leonardo. You are Italian?"<br>I shook my head. "My mother is... My father... Wasn't." then it came to me. "You killed my father!" before he could respond I flew at him pinning him against the wall.  
>"You killed him, you killed him, you killed him!" I was strangling him with strength that I didn't know I had... But why was I trying to strangle a vampire? Surely they didn't need to breathe.<br>"Forgive me, Leonardo... But, I am a vampire, killing humans is what I do-" at that, my fist collided with his cheek and he was sent to the ground. He coughed and some blood splattered to the ground, he wiped his mouth and looked up at me.  
>I narrowed my eyes. "You're a vampire... Why do you have blood?"<br>He sighed, "Maybe if you would just let me explain myself before you start throwing a hissy fit, then you would know." he got to his feet and sat back on the bed, I remained standing and watched him carefully.  
>"I am only half vampire, my other half - human. My mother was a human when she conceived me with my father, who was a vampire. I noticed something special about you, Leonardo. You are a kind young man and very intelligent. That is why I chose you-"<br>"-Chose me to do what?"  
>"I chose you to help me and my kind on a mission."<br>I didn't answer now, I just waited.  
>"Our kind has an enemy... Pure vampires. Which, is what you are, but you shall be working for us. We are creating an army to fight the, for all of the hybrid lives they have taken. But, less vampires are mating with humans now, which means we need male and female hybrids to breed. However... We have no female hybrids, as we don't want them to be soldiers. So, our next mission is to find female hybrids, but we are having no luck. You are a vampire and so you have access to the secrets if the pure vampire world... They may know about female hybrids... Who knows, maybe they kill them so we cannot mate. Either way, we need some and you would be the perfect person to do it."<br>"I don't think so-"  
>"What else have you to do?" he suddenly asked.<br>"You father is dead, you have no wife or family. Your mother has moved back to Italy, has she not?"  
>I slowly nodded. "She has-"<br>"-So what have you to lose? You don't have a comfortable bed to sleep in, all you do is work everyday and that is all you will do until you die... Which, being in the state that you are with take a lot long than you think." then he came forward and held my arms. "If you come with me, Leonardo, you will see the world. I will send you on your way and you will see things that no human could ever see in their lifetime. You will be something incredible... Amazing beyond words."  
>I sighed. "I cannot just get up and leave-"<br>"-Leonardo, you have nothing to live for." he said, fiercely. "I'm sorry to sound blunt, but it's true. The only thing you lived for was to bring your drunk father home from the brothel every night. You live to have an amazing job, but you never will. This is the nineteenth century, boy. You die in what you're born in. You were born in working class standards, you will get no further from that."  
>His words were cold and harsh, but, when I looked deeper into his words - I saw that he was right.<br>What exactly did I live for?  
>My mother had moved from England back to Italy when her and my father divorced, she had sent me letter from now and then. Would I ever see her again? I did not know. Although, I would probably be foolish to think that she would.<br>I looked at Laserek the hybrid vampire then, and, I nodded.  
>"You may have your wish. What is it exactly that you are expecting of me?"<br>"Find a female, hybrid vampire. Find many - we need as many as we can-"  
>"-To breed-?"<br>"-Yes. Now, come, we don't have much time-"  
>"-what do you mean?"<br>He sighed and turned to the door. "The sun is rising, they've found your father's body and they're searching for the killer-"  
>"That was fast, it only happened last night-"<br>"-It happened three nights ago. You've been enduring the painful transformation for three days. Now, it is complete. Now, you are also at your strongest." he then opened the door and gestured for me to leave with him.  
>"You are now at your strongest." he continued as we walked down a wet, pebbly street in the overcast sunrise. "You still have human tissue and so, you are the strongest kind of vampire there is. Although, after the first year, your strength will weaken slinky to a normal vampire level."<br>"But - I don't understand." I said. "Surely, this mission is going to limit me. I cannot go out in sunlight, can I?"  
>"Oh on the contrary my dear boy, you can walk out in sunlight... Just try and avoid being seen when you do."<br>I frowned. "Why do you say that?"  
>"Because, your skin reacts to sunlight, though it is painless." then he grinned. "You will see. In due time you will discover exactly what you are capable of. Until then - you are to look for a hybrid vampire."<br>"And how will I know they're hybrid?"  
>"If you interact with other vampires, you will gather a scent that is implanted in all of them, same with humans. When you find a hybrid vampire, you will smell both - take me for example."<br>I nodded. "Alright, so, where do I travel first?"  
>"You may travel wherever you like. The world is your oyster now that you have unlimited time-"<br>Laserek yanked me out the way from a passing horse and carriage that would have hit me.  
>"Go wherever your nose takes you. You will be able to sniff one out."<br>"What do I do if I find one?"  
>"There is an island off the coast of Iceland, Grimsey. That is where we nest - you will find it. But, make sure that you bring her to us... Alive. Understood?"<br>After a few moments, I nodded.  
>"Excellent. This is where I leave you - do not disappoint me, Leonardo." and before I could say anything else, he was gone.<p>

Suddenly, I felt helpless again. I was too new to this... Vampire situation to function properly on my own. The world was my oyster, Laserek had told me. It see,ed legitimate to search London for a start, seeing as it was more close to home. And I did.  
>Throughout the day I tried to find that combined human and vampire scent. I received odd looks from the men and suddenly, all the women were giggling and fluttering their eyelashes at me - but I ignored them.<br>By night, at around eleven, I found myself standing outside the brothel where my father would stand staggering, waiting for me. Without thinking, I went inside. It was like a part of my brain was saying that he could be inside.  
>Inside the brothel I was hit with the stench of sweat, drink and sex. I looked around at the prostitutes who stood by men or sat on their knees with their breasts hanging out above their corsets, their faces plastered in awful make up. But, I noticed how some of these people were too drunk to understand what 'privacy' meant. I saw one prostitute, in a red and black corset, unzip one man's trousers and take away his underwear before sitting on his lap and, well, I suppose she just gave him what he wanted there.<br>It was sickening behaviour, if you ask me. Animalistic.  
>I sighed and was about to leave when a woman stuck out her bare leg in front of me.<br>"Where d'you think you're going, handsome?" she asked, her teeth an ugly yellow and black, her breasts veiny from the tightness of her corset.  
>I looked at her. "I-I was just leaving, thank you."<br>"Why? Not hav'in any fun?" she gently pushed me against on of the standing beams. "I can show ya' fun." my body went entirely stiff... I didn't know what I was doing. I wanted to leave - this place, just wasn't me. But the woman was persistent.  
>She grabbed my hand. "C'mon... I'll give you a good night."<br>Without thinking, I followed her. I didn't know why the hell I was following her, but I did. She took me into a room upstairs and closed the door behind her.

That night, something changed in me. Like anything else needed to change in me. I had sex with that whore that night and... I was surprised about how much I enjoyed it. The rush, the adrenaline, I loved it. Although, I doubt the whore enjoyed it. By the time I was finished, she way laying on the bed - dead, with blood calmly tricking from her neck, covering her breasts and her stomach. And on top of that - semen, which, I thought, added a nice touch. So, I put my clothes back on and left her to rot away with the room.  
>Outside, the women were still going, flashing around their genitals and god knows what else.<br>I didn't leave then. No. Instead, I grabbed a couple of them and took them into another room, leaving them both in the same states as the first one a couple of hours later.  
>Sex felt... Good... Really good. No wonder my father was shocked that I was still a virgin.<br>After my sixth whore, I finally left. Only to go to another whore house just a mile away and have about ten women there. It was upon leaving the second brothel that I realised I still had a mission to attend to.

I'm proud to say that I did indeed sail the seven seas... But with no luck. I was too distracted by my new vampire abilities to concentrate on this mission. I wondered, if I found this hybrid, if I could have sex with her too?... Or was she off limits.  
>For the following century, I abandoned the idea of finding this hybrid. Hell, for the next hundred and sixty two years, I ignored that hybrid mission. I was a vampire and therefore, I was going to do what vampires do - hunt, bang, drink and kill. Seemed like a pretty good life. Although, there were some women I didn't kill.<br>Like, when I travelled to America in the late thirties, I ended up having sex with this young girl called Norma Jean. I didn't need her surname. But, I was to later find out that she was actually Marilyn Monroe. It was strange the rush of power and strength that came to me, thinking that I could have killed Marilyn Monroe- I guess it's a good thing I didn't.  
>Anyway, Marilyn was one who got away along with several others who I didn't really care about.<br>It was amazing to watch time change across the world. I did consider returning to my home country and fighting in the World War, but instead I ventured to America and settled there. In fact, I didn't leave. I moved around to different states and I have managed to live in every state.

It wasn't until 2013 when I became aware of the reason as to why I was created. I was meant to find a female hybrid - I wondered if Laserek would ever come after me, demanding one or he'd kill me. I hadn't seen him in nearly two hundred years, but still. Maybe he's just watching over me. Creepy.  
>I began to commit to my mission.<p>

I started in the south of north America with very little luck. But, when crossing the midlands, I had an idea. It was likely that it would be easier to find someone if I had someone else with me to help, maybe a female companion.  
>One night in September in Utah, I wandered down a quiet residential street. The pavement had finally cooled from the long heat wave that had recently swept through Salt Lake City. I pulled my hood up to avoid being identified by the security cameras that were attached to every house.<br>I leant against a lamppost and just listened to the natural lullaby of the night. Considering it was about 2 am, I was surprised to hear a whimpering sound from one of the houses. At first I ignored it, but soon, I could hear the tears falling to their bed sheets. I sighed and found the house and climbed the tree to where the room was.  
>Inside the room was a girl, sitting on her bed, just crying.<br>Ugh.  
>I hated the way humans cried - crying was something that I just didn't miss about being human.<br>She had short, dark hair and wore black PJ pants with a grey tank top. Her bed had more screwed up tissues than blanket on it and I found myself just sitting there, watching her. Her window was open.  
>I wondered what she was crying about. Maybe her pet cat had died or something. So, anyway, I decided to be a freak and, I climbed through her window. She saw me and was about I scream but I bolted over to her and trapped my hand over her mouth to stop the scream.<br>"Sh, Sh,Sh." I quickly said, "I'm not going to hurt you- I just, I heard you crying."  
>Her eyes were filled with fright and straight away, I knew she was looking at my eyes. Stupid red eyes.<br>I sighed. "Look. I need help to complete a mission, okay? And you would be perfect for that."  
>She started to squirm and under my hand I could hear her yelling at me for me to get off her. But I couldn't let her go, not now. Well, unless I chose to kill her of course, which, if she didn't stop squirming, I would indeed do.<br>For the next five to ten minutes I stood there with her pinned against the wall, waiting for her to calm down. When she finally stopped, I slowly removed my hand. At that, she grabbed the lamp off her table and smashed it against my head, obviously, it didn't hurt. The lamp smashed and spread all over the floor. Then, down the hall a door opened and a man's voice came.  
>"Annabel? Sweetheart, are you alright?" he called, then he knocked at the door. I looked at the girl and mouthed to her.<br>"Say, "I'm fine.""  
>"I-I'm fine, dad-"<br>"Are you sure?"  
>She nodded. "Yes. I just hit the lamp with my... Foot, by accident. Sorry to wake you."<br>After a moment silence, he sighed in the other side of the door. "It's okay, pumpkin... Just get some sleep, alright?" and then his footsteps trailed back down to his room and he shut the door.  
>When his door shut, this Annabel girl glared at me. "Aright, who the hell are you and why the hell are you sneaking into my room?"<br>I flashed her a charming smile before saying. "I'm Leonardo, you must be Annabel."  
>"Yes. Now, why do you think I would be oh-so-wonderful for your mission?"<br>"Because, I need a companion and a female companion might be more useful-"  
>Before I could finish, she slapped me across the face. "How dare you!" she hissed.<br>"No, no, no... Not for sex, you idiot. I need to find something, a girl and I figured, maybe with a female accomplice, it might be easier."  
>"And why me?"<br>I shrugged. "You seemed pretty sad, I figured you could use something to take your mind off of it."  
>"Oh," she sighed. "I see." then, she walked past me and went to sit back on her bed. "My boyfriend disappeared four years ago today-"<br>"-Look, I didn't ask why you were crying, I was just simply stating that you were. Thanks for attempting to let me in, but the only thing I need to be in right now, is your neck - so, we have to leave now." I walked over to her window and opened it further.  
>"What, wait - I can't just, drop everything and go."<br>"Tough shit. You're gonna have to, now c'mon." I held out my hand for her. She hesitated at the other side of the room, longer than I thought was necessary, until, finally, she came over to me.  
>"Where are you taking me?"<br>"Away." I said and grabbed her hand before she could change her mind and pulled her out the window. "Hold your breath." I whispered as we landed on the ground.  
>"Wait, wait, wait... I didn't say that I was-" the wind stole her voice as I bolted miles and miles away from her house, away to a place where no one would be able to hear her screams through the transformation.<p>

I stopped somewhere in the desert and by that point, Annie - whatever her name was, was kicking up a huge fuss.  
>"Get off me you sick creep!" she screamed at me, pounding her little fists against my back. She couldn't hurt me, but I did start to get pissed off with it. So, I dropped her and she fell to the ground like a rag doll. As she reassembled herself behind me, I narrowed my eyes at the low early morning glow that hummed on the horizon.<br>It was nearly dawn... And this girl was still a human. I wasn't sure where I'd taken her, maybe we were somewhere in Arizona?

Either way, when I turned around to her, she was crying.

"P-please let me go." She sobbed, trying to wipe away every tear before it fell.

I sighed. "Sorry, this is very important-"

"-_Why_ me?" she yelled at me, only then causing herself to cry more.

I didn't respond, I just stood there and waited for her to calm down.

For the next fifteen minutes we stood there with her looking frantically around her at the empty desert, hoping to see signs of life, whilst I stood there waiting patiently. Well, not patiently, I was standing impatiently which I think was making her panic more.

Finally, I sighed. "What was your name, again?"

"A-Annabel." She stuttered. "Why?"

I sighed and held out my hand. "I understand I've been a little hasty – my name's Leonardo de Luca." After a long moment, she pulled her hand out from hugging herself and shook my hand.

"Annabel Bloom. Are you Italian? Cos' you sound a little British to me."

"Then consider me, British Italian. But we're not here to discuss my heritage."

"Why are we here?" She asked her voice a lot calmer now than it was before.

"Well, because I need your help."

"Yeah, you said that before, but I need details, dude."

I rolled my eyes. "Don't call me that please."

"Okay... But still, details?"

I sighed. "I need to do something before I can tell you anymore."

"If it's having sex with me, you can forget it."

"It's not sex. I can't explain it-" I looked around and in the distance I could hear cars. "-Come with me, I need to find something,"

She rolled her eyes. "You're always finding something, always doing something-"

"-Forgive me for having something to do with my life."

I threw her on my back again before bolting towards the sound of cars. I ran miles, but I didn't really notice the distance. After a few minutes, we arrived at the rear of a cheap, low standard motel called 'Sleeper' – that's original.

The sun was continuing to rise but the parking lot around the front was still heavily shadowed. I managed to jump start a random truck. A motel room may have been more comfortable for her to endure the transformation, but I would much rather avoid suspicion than seek extensively for comfort.

"Whoa, wait, what are you doing?" She whispered hastily at me as I got in the now grumbling truck.

"I'm rowing a boat, what does it look like?" when she only answered with an unimpressed glare, I nudged my head to the passenger seat and she got in.

"This is illegal, you realise that?" she said was I pulled out the parking lot.

I chuckled. "Sweetheart, when you're my age, pardon my French, but you don't give a shit about the law."

She looked at me and narrowed her eyes. "What – twenty-something?" she scoffed. "Sorry, dude but you're hardly above the law at that age."

I chuckled, "Correction, young one, I am nearly two hundred years old. I come from Victorian England and I see you come from modern day overrated America."

"If you really are two hundred years old, then not only did you just abduct a girl you also abducted a seventeen year old girl-"

"If you're trying to pull that paedophile rubbish on me, it isn't going to work."

She started to laugh, "I'm sorry, did you just say _rubbish_?"

"That I did. Now, before you can question me any further, I am going to start the transformation, but first, I need you to get into the bed of the truck."

"Why-?"

"Because I said so, now do it." I barked at her as I pulled over to the side of the empty road. I knew that within an hour this road would be full of cars, so I couldn't stay here, but I could at least start here and travel further north.

Getting Annabel into the truck bed was like asking a leaf to sing. Eventually, I ended up throwing her into it. She was still oblivious to everything, but she would soon become aware of the horrors she was due to face.

She sat in the middle, with her knees up to her chest. I crawled up next to her and suddenly, I froze.

I had never turned anyone before… It was scary. Perhaps it was supposed to be faster than this, more breathtaking and surprising.

But I was taking it slow, like a virgin who comes in from all the wrong angles.

"What exactly are you going to do?" she asked, looking unimpressed. I thought for a moment and came up with the idea of seduction. I suppose it was a certain style of turning a human. Although, I tended to use seduction before I fed. I just hoped I didn't kill the poor girl, well, completely anyway.

I didn't answer her question, instead, I grabbed her face and pulled her lips to mine. At first, she fought against me, but gradually, she faded away and fell into the kiss. I continued the kiss from her lips to her cheek, to her jaw line to her neck and kissed her neck softly before sinking my teeth in and injecting the venom, quickly pulling back before I could start to feed.

After the third day, her screams and begs and cries had become white noise to me. At first, it had been unbearable and I'd even felt human during that period. In fact, an ounce of my humanity seemed to return when she was there at all, which was strange. I could imagine her screams being mine from when I also endured that same transformation. The moment she woke up was the single most terrifying moment of my life. I expected her to wake up… like a normal person. My just as her eyes shot open, her entire body shot up and out of the truck.

"Annabel!" I yelled after her, though I could have whispered and she would have heard it. Within a second she was standing in front of me, her new piercing red eyes staring into mine,

"I have never felt so alive." She whispered, her voice like low humming angels. "Nor have I ever felt such a strong desire to kill you."

She pinned me against the truck, breaking the window and denting the door.

"What have you done to me?" she hissed.

"I-I've made you my accomplice."

"For what!" she screamed and threw my body to the floor like a pillow and suddenly I was absorbed in a large dust cloud as I scrapped across the floor.

Before I responded, I stood and reassembled myself.

"I need to find a girl. Not just any girl, but a girl that is of a half human, half vampire species."

She narrowed her eyes at me. "Why?"

I didn't want to explain the truth to her, women's rights and all, but she might understand why it is so important if she knows the truth.

And so I told her.

"Annabel, come back here!" I yelled to her as she started to storm away. As expected, she didn't take so kindly to her mission.

"No!" she yelled. "You and your sick hybrid friends can stay the hell away from me!"

I sighed and started to run, I was in front of her within seconds.

"Listen to me, it's just one girl, Annabel. What exactly do you have to go home to?" the last part grabbed her attention, so I continued. "Look at yourself, you're a vampire now – you can't go home to your normal family and your normal friends and lead a normal life. From now on you're sticking with me unless I say otherwise. Either that or get yourself killed."

"I would rather that." She growled.

"Excellent, so you'll be coming with me then." I started to walk forward and just as she was about to object, I turned to her.

"Oh, and one other thing. Other vampires, aren't like me, they're not like you – they're bad. You're a lot stronger than normal vampires and especially hybrid vampires. If one were to approach you, run. Either that, or aim for the kill. Don't let them fool you, because they will manipulate you and they will kill you-"

"Okay, okay – steer clear of other vampires, I get it."

I grinned. "Good, now let us continue."

We travelled together after that and I managed to keep us away from other vampires. I couldn't have the meddling with this. If any of them found out that I worked for hybrids, they were bound to kill me. I started to open up more to Annabel about my life and my father and how things used to be for me before the transformation. And, it made me feel human. There just something about Annabel that brought out the human in me and she was actually a very nice person. I understood that we both got off on the wrong foot, who wouldn't if one of them was kidnapped. But it changed one night. We had stopped in a small town that I didn't know the name of.

Annabel was being her usual, passing a few comments self. We went and sat down in a small empty diner with flickering lights and old music playing in the background. It was getting late and I think they were planning on closing, but the nice waitress kept it open for us. Obviously, we didn't eat or drink anything, but Annabel just wanted to sit down a few human for a few minutes, so I obliged.

"Did you ever marry?" she asked. "Which you were a human?"

I laughed and shook my head. "No, never had a girlfriend or wife. The only woman in my life was my mother until she moved back to Italy."

"Did you want to?"

"Eventually, maybe, but I was more determined on being able to support a family than actually having one."

"Oh, you were a business man?"

"Sort of. My job then wasn't all that, but I didn't really care."

"What about now?" she asked.

I looked at her. "What do you mean?"

"You could get any girl you want-"

I chuckled as I cut her off. "There isn't any point in having any girl when none of them are… let's say… special."

She grinned. "Do you have a very specific type?"

I leant forward on the table. "Annabel, I'm not exactly in the position right now to think about family. Besides, I could never have a family now."

"Why not?"

"Because, you see how vampire and human reproduction goes. It's mother would die and I would be the one looking after the baby. What's the point?"

She rolled her eyes and leant forward on the table. "The point is, Leo that you can live forever now. What's the point in living forever when you have nothing to live for?"

I narrowed my eyes at her for a long while and without thinking, I kissed her. But this time, I kissed with no intentions of hurting her or changing her... Just kissing her.

After a while, she fell into the kiss, but I pulled away knowing damn well that everything I was doing was wrong.

"Why did you kiss-"

"I didn't." I snapped, then I caught her eye. Those beautiful red eyes. I just wished she didn't remember that. I wished I hadn't done it. I'm a busy man, I don't have time for love or anything, besides, with me it would only hurt her.

"But you-"

"No, I didn't." I whispered. "Just- just forget I kissed you, okay? Forget it."

After a couple f seconds, she blinked. "Forget what?"

I could see what she was doing so I nodded. "Good girl."

"Why am I good?"

"You're good for forgetting about the kiss."

"What kiss?"

I narrowed my eyes at her. "Annabel, I just kissed you."

She suddenly look horrified. "No you didn't… Did you? I didn't see it."

"Yes I did."

"I can't remember it."

I stared at her for a long moment. When the hell just happened?

Either she is very good at acting or she actually forgot that I kissed her.

I sat back in my seat, completely shocked. I then looked out the window in thought and saw a brothel entrance down a narrow alleyway.

It had been years since I'd been in a whore house, maybe I could do with a visit. At that moment I looked back at Annabel.

"I think we should stay here for the night, I'm going to go for a wander around town. You'll be okay on your own for a bit, right?" I asked as I got out of the booth. She nodded as I turned, not that she had much choice. Of course, I knew that she was going to see me walk into the brothel, but she would get over it.

The stench of booze and sex fill my nose as I strode in. Breasts and thongs were everywhere, some weren't even wearing anything. Then followed the howls and whistles of drunken men throwing all their children's college fund at the whores dancing on the poles. I didn't want to be seen to by these women; I just wanted to watch and possibly pick on to feed on.

I sat down in the corner and watched for a few minutes. My phone started to buzz in my pocket and when I looked, I saw Annabel's caller ID flash up.

"Hi there." I heard a woman's voice so I pressed 'decline' and looked forward to find a girl who only looked about twenty with bright platinum blonde locks standing in front of me, braless and wearing some kind of material over her groin that I think was supposed to be some explicit form of underwear.

"Hello." I said politely but sullenly. She then sat herself down next to me.

"Can I give you some company, you look awful lonely in this corner."

"Thank you for your offer, but I am fine thank you."

"I'll do it for free!" she said quickly enough that I flinched. How desperate was this girl?

"Thank you, but I'm only here to watch, not participate."

"Then why did you come?"

"Why did you come over to _me_?" I asked, looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

She shrugged. "We don't get many good lookers here, I just thought I'd nab one when I saw one." She grinned. "Then I saw you."

I looked her up and down. "How old are you?"

"Twenty one." She said, proudly. "How old are you?"

"One hundred and seventy five – seventy six in June."

She burst out laughing, "You're funny." And she playfully hit me. I laughed a little and before I knew it she was sitting on my lap, touching me all over.

"What part of I don't want your service don't you understand?"

"What part of I want you, don't you understand?" She bent her neck down and started to kiss my neck. I swear she wasn't getting this and I was considering snapping her neck, but then I realised… If she really likes me this much, then I can use her and bend her to my own will. In fact, She could be more helpful than Annabel, not that I would consider getting rid of Annabel.

"I'm Leonardo." I said as she kissed up my cheek, she pulled back and looked down at me with her glowing blue eyes.

"I'm Lauren."

Lauren - the biggest mistake of my life.

**That's it guys! I hope you enjoyed Last Quar****ter and thank you so much for reading!**

**Please review for both this chapter and/or the entire story and let me know what you think!**

**Anyway, I'll try to post the next story when I can :)**

**Thank you so much again :) x**


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